The Beautiful Tree: Indigenous Indian Education in the Eighteenth Century c5.s17.32

c5.s17.32

31. If an arrangement of this kind is sanctioned, I have little doubt that, in a few years, the receipts from such a fund would more than counterbalance the disbursement. But even if they did not, the charge would be comparatively trifling. The enactments of the British Parliament contemplate such a charge. The known liberality of the authorities in England on this subject ensure to it sanction: the supreme government have set the example; and, the Provincial functionaries in the Madras territories ought perhaps to take blame to themselves; that they have waited to be called upon, before they stood forth as the organ of public opinion, in a matter of such importance and universal interest; I sincerely hope that it will not, as before, be allowed to sink into oblivion; but that the information submitted by the several Collectors, will enable your Board and the government, to mature, from their suggestions, some practical, or at least some experimental plan for the improvement of education, and the support of learning in Southern India.