English history, the great events of which he described chiefly with an eye to the progress of civilization and refinement, and 'the gradual rise of the liberties and judicial establishments of the country. He afterwards explained the foundations of the English constitution, attempting as much as possible to make his remarks the means of opening the minds of the young 'students to questions of general policy and constitutional jurisprudence. He examined in a popular way most of the leading questions which present themselves to all who are 'called upon to take a part in public life in this country, and the deeper and more enlarged principles which regulate ' legislative wisdom in countries remote from England and from 'European communities, and where a fundamental difference of laws, usages, and religion requires the exercise of that toleration in judgment and that freedom from prejudice which only ' minds of the higher class, when patiently exercised, can fully ' attain. His aim was to impart on these subjects, and on English law, in which Blackstone was his text book, as much as possible of that information which every English gentleman ought to possess, and to lead to an impartial and unprejudiced 'view of those forms of society and government which his 'hearers were to witness in the distant country where they were to exercise their knowledge."

6

6

And such or nearly such is the course now pursued by the present able law Professor at Haileybury. Orientals and law are decidedly the two most practically important subjects in the whole College course. A knowledge of the first is indispensable as the vehicle for diffusing the second, and the latter is what onehalf the service may have cause to deem the staple business of life. We have been led into a longer digression than we originally intended; but the subject is frequently canvassed here and at home, and it seemed essential that we should clearly define how far the law studies in reality reach.

But we have got our student into his second term, let us carry him in safety through his third and fourth. In the next six months there is a comparatively small addition to the daily task. The mathematics appear in the form of statics and dynamics as set forth in a small book of Professor Whewell's, now published as part of the general standard for degrees at the University of Cambridge. The classics remain. The political economy disappears and is succeeded by history: not the history of great revolutions or stirring events, studded with anecdote and embellished with the biographies of noble characters, but history as exemplifying the gradual progression of national wealth and the diffusion of the sciences and arts of civilization.

D

One term however is invariably devoted to the history of the Indian empire, from its earliest period under the priestly dominion of the Brahmans, to the latest victories of Hastings and Lake in our own immediate times. And we can affirm with confidence that very few collegians ever set sail for India without a tolerable acquaintance with the spirit of Manu's laws and his state of society, with the ever shifting dynasties of the Muhammadan sovereigns, and the gradual but steady advance of English dominion throughout the land. In this term another oriental language-the last and perhaps the most usefulappears on the scene. The medium, as all know, of communication between natives of all parts of India, in one district rugged, in another polished to an extreme, but ever comprehensive and capable of indefinite improvement, the first thing of which the want is most felt in landing, the language in which the first imperfect attempts at conversation with the natives are made, a passport over India as French is on the continent, and the correct speaking of which is considered the characteristic of a gentleman-who would not regret that the Hindustani, or more correctly, that Urdu, should be excluded from the walls of Haileybury? And this suggests to us the consideration of a point which it is only with extreme diffidence that we can venture to approach. The propriety of leaving orientals altogether out of the Haileybury course, and reserving them untouched for their natural soil, has been discussed by high and very competent authorities, and it is only because we have theoretically and practically gone over the subject in all its bearings, that we can venture to set ourselves even for a moment on the opposite side. It has been remarked, and with some reason, that as Law, History and other branches are equally as essential to the training of the civilian as the native languages themselves, it would be more equitable to teach as much of the former as possible where they can be got at, and to leave orientals for the time when the fountains of European knowledge shall entirely fail. The progress of two months at Fort William is that of a year at Haileybury, and even the sum total acquired at the latter place is with most students little beyond the mere rudiments of the language. Now admitting that the acquirements of the majority are but moderate, still it is a great victory to have surmounted the first principles in any way whatever ere reaching India. The native Pandit or Munshi, with but a few solitary exceptions, furnishes a painful living instance of the truism, that some men however erudite, are utterly incapable of imparting their knowledge. They never for a moment dream of aiding, superintending or directing

into proper channels the labour of the Sahib, and the latter is forced by a continual cross fire of questions to extort from the obsequious native the fact of his moving in the right or wrong path; happy if the mistaken oriental notion of politeness does not leave him in the bliss of that ignorance, which is discovered only in the hour of trial. Imagine then the drudgery of Sanskrit, Arabic, or even Persian and Urdu acquired by a large body of young men with the assistance of such an unanimated Dictionary as we have described. Even supposing that a longer period was granted for College studies than at present, very few would ever gain a deeper insight into the languages of the east, than was absolutely incumbent. If every thing had to be begun afresh in India, little would be done in a period of a year and half towards gaining a mastery over the Literature of the East. We grant that many of our best Orientalists knew nothing of the Eastern tongues before their arrival in India; but the peculiar facilities allotted to Leyden and to Wilson are not to be looked for as every day occurrences. To few is the ring granted whose commanding spell the genii of language obey, and we should shudder at the thought of a large number of young men set down in India without the least preliminary instruction in any one dialect of the East. The stock of the majority at present is certainly slender, although several good exceptions might be drawn from the College reports of the last three years, but India and its climate seem strangely opposed to wearisome drudgery at rudiments which all must surmount, and it is with these views that we should vote for the maintenance of the present system, if only subjected to a few salutary modifications.

After the third term the car of learning is considered to have received the heaviest load it can bear, and it progresses towards the denouement with a staid and regular motion. A change in the Mathematical course, where Astronomy succeeds to Dynamics, an increased energy visible on the part of the already energetic, and a brushing up of the dimmed and neglected faculties by the idle and the careless, together with a more direct and earnest appeal from the Professors, are the only changes visible in the fourth and last term. The final examination approaches, and the goal is already in sight. This one differs in no material respect from those already undergone. Its length is the same reary period of three weeks. Its hours of intense study pass as tediously as they did a year ago. But it may be asked how are those who have neglected the call during the period of preparation, enabled to meet the day of trial? The answer is, that except for certain allowances made, they would appear utterly

at a discount. On a certain date, however, lectures cease, and the days for examination in each peculiar subject, are duly notified to the public. Then the struggle commences. Note books, analyses, references, all that can give strength to the weak, or veil the naked position of the defenceless, are sought for and read up with the force of desperation. The midnight oil is burnt by both the reading and the fast man; by the former as a matter of habit, by the latter as a short and momentary concentration of his powers. The race is commenced in earnest, and after days spent in answering questions on paper, and nights in hard reading, the final day arrives. A detachment of Directors proceeds to visit the institution. We pass over the joy and the grief, the congratulations and the heart burning, the discontent of the ambitious who have fallen short of their high hopes, the satisfaction of the idle who have passed when they least expected it-the prizes are distributed, a speech is made by the chairman to exhort those leaving College to re-doubled energy in India, and the railroad conveys the emancipated students from the precincts of Haileybury perhaps for ever!

It will no doubt be asked by several of our readers what kind of test the examinations are, and how far they prove fit coping stones for the course we have endeavoured to describe ? The subjects, at least the European ones, are only tested by an inquisition on paper: the questions are diffuse, and comprise the whole range of the lectures: ample time is given for answering them, and while he, whose mind is literally running over with his subject, can hardly find a full opportunity to deliver himself of all his varied stores, it would be singular if out of the sa same wide range of questions, the dullest could not select some three or four of which he knows something. For a mere pass the standard is exceedingly moderate, and the aid of a well-kept note book for three nights before the history or the law examination, generally enables the hindmost to meet the call made. In the language of the Turf, a short and vigorous rush brings up those who have lagged behind in the early part of the race, and if they do not contend in the first rank, they yet manage to save their distance. While on the subject of the examination we would fain call attention to a most pernicious custom, the bane of the scholar in every age, but more deeply rooted and more dangerous in its ultimate consequences at Haileybury than elsewhere. We allude to the excessive and continuous hard reading, the wear and tear system of intense fagging, which prevails year after year within its walls. We do not speak to afford an excuse to the indolent, or to deter those who make a boast of their fortnight's assumed study, but we raise a warning voice to him who for

months extends his labours throughout the dreary night, until as he throws his wearied frame on his couch, he hears the song of the early lark, and sees the first bold streaks of the summer dawn illuminate his room, who rises unrefreshed from a shortened period of rest to resume the ceaseless round, and whose exertions, as they commence with his entrance and only cease at his departure from college, must certainly have a lasting effect on his system and constitution. There is no service in the world, no climate under the sun, in which the union of moral and intellectual with physical superiority, should be an object of more earnest prayer than in the civil service of India: no profession where the "mens sana" in the "sano corpore" should be the point which all education should ever keep in view, yet with numerous examples ringing in their ears, and with a foreknowledge that all their vigour will be required to meet the encroaches of a burning clime, this detestable custom is persisted in by the students of almost every generation. Such warnings have often been held out, and as often disregarded. Even in the climate of England the effects of hard reading for a first class have ruined the prospects of many a gifted individual: many a noble heart has cracked under the pressure of preparation for an approaching degree. What then shall we say of such an expenditure of faculties on the part of those whose frame is to be exposed to the damps of Bengal, or the hot winds of Hindustan, to the scorching of Guzerat, or the noxious breath of the Concan: who may have to brave, if required, the fatigues of a journey in the glaring months of May and June, or may be destined to imbibe a slow and secret poison from the leaden gusts of the Sunderbunds? Yet with a full and even an exaggerated account of the climate of India, this system is allowed, lauded, encouraged. We say encouraged, because it seems an acknowledged axiom at Haileybury, that the more a victim is inclined to work, the more he shall be required to perform. If the soil has returned a bountiful crop in one season and gives promise of yielding still more abundantly in the next, a further return is demanded with greater avidity. The mental field is taxed to the utmost extent of its bearing. Every source of fertility is unnaturally forced into action. Every means employed to increase the value of the harvest. There is no medium, no seeking to lessen the wide difference between the advanced few and the retarded many. The former are hurried on, and the latter suffered to lag behind unnoticed. It is one of the greatest faults in the whole system that the standard for mere passing is so despicably low. A certain