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to remedy the evil of incompetent persons being sent out to India that the College was established, and in his opinion the experiment had fully answered. The requiring a certificate that parties had been properly educated had, in his opinion, a most beneficial effect in preventing incompetent persons from being sent out. He could have wished that the certificate had been incorporated in the bill itself.

Mr. Trant said, that all his experience contradicted the assertion that, previous to the establishment of the College, the persons sent out to India were uneducated. In his opinion, the civil service had been very little improved by the College, which he conceived had totally failed to answer the purpose for which it had been founded.

Mr. Secretary Canning said, that his concurrence in the bill was not founded in any apprehension that the temporary suspension of the qualification from the College would lead to the destruction of that institution. On the contrary, although in former times great men had appeared in India, yet the country had a right to expect that there should be some competent security for the cultivation and education to be possessed by those who were sent out to India. The nation had a deep interest in the question, and had a strict right to be assured that those who were destined for India should have some preparatory education previous to their departure. At the same time, if there could be a guarantee for the general education of those appointed to offices in India, he might hesitate between the present specific and a more general place of instruction; for be believed that, for all the purposes which men could be called upon to execute, the English gentleman's education was decidedly the best. But there were no means of obtaining this desirable object except by the test of examination: of these there were partialities, and a thousand other impediments to operate against the purity of such a test. With respect to the College, it appeared to him that, under circumstances of peculiar difficulty, it had been conducted with eminent credit to those to whom its management was intrusted, and with great utility to the public service. He was sorry that any cause had occurred for the temporary suspension of its powers, but in giving his support to the present measure, he could only give

his

his pledge of honour that he had no such intention as to get rid of it altogether; and if there should be any change in its future management, it would only be the kind of change to which he had alluded, that of introducing a general system of education instead of the specific instruction, which was at present pursued.

Col. Baillie consented to the bill because he considered it 'expedient to supply the deficiencies of the public service. The regulations of the bill were not intended in the slightest degree to injure the College, but simply to provide a sufficient number of persons possessing the qualifications which were requisite for such institutions.

Mr. Williams Wynn, after stating the reasons why the present plan was the best that could be adopted, conceived that much advantage might be derived from the competition which it would create among the promoters of the different systems of education for young men proceeding to India. He could not see any reason why a young man, who had gone through the usual routine of a public school, and had afterwards applied himself at the universities or elsewhere to the study of the language of India, should not be equally well qualified for service in India with a young man educated at the College. He could not forget that one of the Company's most able servants, Warren Hastings, had been educated at Westminster school, in the same form with Lloyd and Churchill, and Cowper, and that he had retained the love of literature to the last. He proposed to pass the bill only for three years, in order that it might be then reconsidered at the end of that time, when the House had obtained further experience on the subject.

The act of the 7th Geo. IV, cap. 56, was accordingly passed, by which the provision before-mentioned was suspended, and persons are permitted to be sent out as writers on producing testimonials and passing an examination under certain rules and regulations framed by the Court subject to approval by the Board of Commissioners for the Affairs of India. No person can be appointed a writer whose age is less than eighteen, unless in the case of any student who shall have passed four terms at the East-India College prior to his having

attained

attained that age. The act continues in force for three years from the 26th May 1826, consequently its provisions cease on the 26th May 1829 unless the act be renewed. As the regulations were not framed when the act was printed, the Act and Regulations are now given at length.

as writers, on

LAW.

1826.

7 Geo. 4,

c. 56.

(1) And whereas there is not a sufficient number of persons qualified, according to the provisions of the said Act, to be appointed writers to fill the vacancies which exist, and which are likely to occur in the civil 26th May, establishments of the said presidencies in the East-Indies: be it therefore enacted by the King's most excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords spiritual and temporal, and Commons, Persons may in this present parliament assembled, and by the aube sent to India thority of the same, that at any time within three producing tes- years from the passing of this act, it shall and may be timonials and lawful for the Court of Directors of the said United passing examiCompany to nominate and appoint, and to send to the presidencies of Fort William, Fort Saint George, or Bombay, in the capacity of a writer, any person who shall produce such testimonials of his character and conduct, and pass such an examination as, by rules and regulations to be framed and established as hereinafter is mentioned, shall be required.

nation.

Directors may,

with

(2) And be it further enacted, that the said Court tion of Board of of Directors shall, and they are hereby required, with Control, esta- all convenient speed, by and with the consent and blish regulations respecting approbation of the Board of Commissioners for the qualifications. Affairs of India, to frame and establish proper rules and regulations respecting the due and necessary qualifications of writers; and that it shall and may be lawful for the said Court of Directors, with the consent and approbation of the said Board of Commissioners, to alter and vary such rules and regulations from time to time as circumstances may appear to require; and that the rules and regulations so altered and varied shall be of the same force and effect as the original rules and regulations.

REGULATIONS for Admission to the Civil Service of the East-India Company of Persons who have not resided at the East-India College; framed by the Court of Directors, and approved by the Board of Commissioners for the Affairs of India, in conformity with the provisions of the Act 7th Geo. IV. cap. 56.

That persons nominated writers, although they may not have been admitted at the East-India College, shall be deemed eligible for examination upon the production of the following certificates:

First. That the age is not less than eighteen nor more than twenty-two.

Second. Testimonials, upon honour, of good moral conduct, under the hand of the principal or superior authority of the college or public institution for instruction in which the nominee may have been educated; or if the nominee has not been educated in a public institution, then under the hand of the person or persons by whom the nominee may have been educated, for a period of not less than two years immediately preceding the time of presentation. The said testimonials to be such as shall be deemed satisfactory by the Court of Directors.

Third. A certificate from the Board of Examiners, to be appointed in manner hereinafter directed, shewing that the nominee has been examined and found qualified, agreeably to the test described in the paper hereunto annexed.

That a Board of four Examiners be appointed, two from the University of Oxford, and two from that of Cambridge, for the departments of Classics, Mathematics, and History.*

That Dr. Wilkins be appointed to examine such of the candidates as may present themselves for examination in the Oriental languages. That the examination in those languages shall for the present be optional, and confined to such of the nominees as shall voluntarily present themselves to undergo it.

That the Examiners meet half-yearly in London, at Lady-day and at Michaelmas, for the purpose of examining nominees.

Rank. That all Writers who shall be found qualified under the foregoing regulations shall rank immediately after those who shall have proceeded from the East-India College at the preceding half-yearly examination, and that they shall be classed in such order as shall be determined by the Board of Examiners.

That the rank which may be assigned by the London Board of Examiners to persons appointed writers without having resided at the College, shall take effect only in the event of the writers proceeding to India within three months after they are so ranked; and that should

Board of Examiners for the year 1828:

Rev. Jas. Endell Tyler, B.D. Į Oxford
Chas. A. Ogilvie, MA. S University.

any

Thos. Thorpe, Esq., M. A. Cam-
Rev. Alfred Ollévant, M. A. S bridge.

any writer delay so to proceed, he shall only take rank among the writers classed at the last examination previous to his departure for India, whether that examination may have been by the London Board of Examiners or by the College Council, and shall be placed at the end of that class in which rank was originally assigned to him.

Plan for the Examination of Candidates.

The candidates will be examined in the Greek Testament, and in some of the works of the following Greek authors, viz. Homer, Herodotus, Demosthenes, or in the Greek Plays; also in some of the works of the following Latin authors, viz. Livy, Cicero, Tacitus, and Juvenal, which part of the examination will include collateral reading in Ancient History, Geography, and Philosophy.

They will also be examined in Mathematics (including the four first and sixth Books of Euclid), Algebra, Plane Trigonometry, and Mechanics.

In Modern History, principally taken from "Russell's Modern Europe;" and in " Paley's Evidences of Christianity."

Test.-No candidate will be deemed qualified unless he be found to possess a competent knowledge of the Greek Testament, and of some portion of the works of at least two of the above-mentioned Latin authors (the particular works to be selected by the candidates, subject however to the previous approval of the examiner), and also of the principles of Grammar, the common Rules of Arithmetic, Vulgar and Decimal Fractions, the four first Books of Euclid, or the Elements of Algebra, including Simple Equations; it being understood that superior attainments in either of the departments of literature or science comprised in the foregoing plan of examination shall, at the discretion of the examiners, be considered to compensate for some deficiency in other of those departments.

These are the minima of qualification. The candidates so qualified will be classed in the order in which they reach higher degrees of attainment, and such classification will determine the relative rank in the service of the candidates when appointed Writers.

Notice.-Dr. Wilkins will attend at each examination, for the purpose of examining such of the candidates as may have previously signified their intention to present themselves to undergo an examination in the Oriental languages. A knowledge of two of those languages (of which the Hindoostanee or the Persian must be one) is an indispensable qualification in India, to enable a civil servant of the Company to fill official situations there and although an examination in those languages will not at present be positively required in England for nominees not educated at the East-India College, yet such persons will essentially promote their own interests, by commencing in England the study of those languages, so as to pass an examination in this country, and prosecuting it during the voyage, and thereby qualifying

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