The extension of our empire in India, which now contains sixty millions of people, has made it necessary to provide a succession of able men to fill the various departments, both of the civil and military government. Whilst at first the Royal Academy at Woolwich, and recently the Military College established near Croydon, furnished instruction to those destined to hold commissions in the artillery and engineer corps, the education of those who were to fill the most important civil offices had not been provided for. During the brilliant administration of the Marquis Wellesley, that intelligent observer saw and lamented this want of previous instruction, and founded at Calcutta a collegiate institution, to provide the means of acquiring a knowledge of the languages, the laws, and the local usages of our Indian empire. The Directors of the Company disapproved in part of the plans of the Governor-general; but they at the same time felt the necessity of giving some knowledge to those whom they had nominated as Writers; for so those are still called, in compliance with early custom, who are designed to fill the highest offices, both judicial and executive, under the Indian government.

With this view the College of Hertford was founded; the design of the institution being to train up a race of youths, who should in succession fill the various and important offices of the civil government and administration. "To dispense justice to millions of people of various languages, manners, usages, and religions; to administer a vast and complicated system of revenue, through districts equal in extent to some of the most considerable kingdoms in Europe; to maintain civil order in one of the most populous and litigious regions in the world; these," says Marquis Wellesley, "are now the duties of the larger portion of the civil servants of the Company. The senior merchants, composing the courts of circuit and appeal under the presidency of Bengal, exercise in each of these courts a jurisdiction of greater local extent, applicable to a larger population, and occupied in the determination of causes infinitely more intricate and numerous, than that of any regularly constituted courts of justice in Europe. The senior or junior merchants employed in the several magistracies and courts, the writers or factors filling the stations of registers, and assistants to the several courts and magistrates, exercise, in different degrees, functions of a nature purely judicial, or intimately connected with the administration of the police, and with the maintenance of the peace and good order of their respective districts." The Marquis points out, in the same strong manner, the arduous duties of the several departments which the Europeans are required to perform in India, and sums up by saying, "that the civil servants of the East India Company can no longer be considered as the agents of a commercial concern; they are, in fact, the ministers and officers of a powerful sovereign; they must be viewed in that capacity with a reference not to their nominal, but to their real occupations. They are required to discharge the functions of magistrates, judges, ambassadors, and governors of provinces, in all the complicated and extensive relations of those sacred trusts and exalted stations, and under peculiar circumstances, which greatly enhance the solemnity of every public obligation, and the difficulty of every public charge. Their duties are those of statesmen in every other part of the world; with no other characteristic differences than the obstacles opposed by an unfavourable climate, a foreign language, the peculiar usages and laws of India, and the manners of its inhabitants."

The final result of the various discussions of the Court of Directors has at last been to maintain the College of Calcutta, for the sole purpose of affording instruction in the different languages and dialects of India, and to devote a college in England to those branches of knowledge which can be cultivated under more favourable circumstances in Europe than in India.

The system of education adopted holds a due medium betwixt the strictness of our public schools and the laxity of the English universities. Upon being appointed, which is unfortunately too much an affair of patronage on the part of the directors, each youth must, previous to his admission, produce a testimonial from his schoolmaster, and pass an examination in Greek and Latin, and arithmetic, before the principal professors. This previous examination at once prevents persons from offering themselves, who have not received the usual school education of the higher classes of society; and those who offer themselves, and are found deficient, are remanded till another period of admission. The lectures of the different professors in the college are given in a manner to make previous preparation necessary, and to encourage most effectually habits of industry and application. In their substance, they embrace the important subjects of Classical Literature, the Oriental Languages, the elements of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, the Laws of England, General History, and Political Economy. At the commencement of the institution, it was feared by some persons that this variety would too much distract the attention of the students at the age of sixteen or seventeen, and prevent them from making a satisfactory progress in any department; but instances of distinguished success have proved that this variety has not only been useful to them in rendering a methodical arrangement of their hours of study more necessary, but has decidedly contributed to enlarge, invigorate, and mature their understandings.

On all the important subjects above enumerated, examinations take place twice in the year. These examinations, which continue twelve days, are conducted upon the plan of the great public and collegiate examinations in the universities, particularly of Cambridge, with such improvements as experience has suggested. The questions given are framed with a view to ascertain the degree of progress and actual proficiency in each particular department on the subjects studied during the preceding term; and the answers, in all cases that will admit of it, are given in writing, in the presence of the professors, and without the possibility of a reference to books. After the examination in any particular department is over, the professor in that department reviews, at his leisure, all the papers that he has received, and places, as nearly as he can, each individual in the numerical order of his relative merit, and in certain divisions implying his degree of positive merit. These arrangements are all subject to the control of the whole collegiate body. They require considerable time and attention, and are executed with scrupulous care and strict impartiality.

Besides the classifications above mentioned, prize-medals, books, and honorary distinctions, are awarded to those who are the heads of classes, or as high as second, third, fourth, or fifth, in two, three, four, or five departments.

These means of exciting emulation and industry have been attended with great success. Those who have come to college tolerably good scholars, have often, during their stay of two years, made such advances in the classical department, as would have done them great credit if they had devoted to it the main part of their time; whilst the contemporary honours which they have obtained in other departments have sufficiently proved that their attention was not confined to one study; and many who had come from public and private schools at sixteen, with such low classical attainments, as appeared to indicate a want either of capacity or application, have shown, by their subsequent progress even in the classical department, and still more by their exertions in others, that a new field and new stimulants had wrought a most beneficial change in their feelings and habits, and had awakened energies of which they were before scarcely conscious.

It has been found at some periods extremely difficult to maintain the requisite discipline, owing chiefly to the tenacity of the directors concerning their patronage. Those who have nominated a youth to the college, and to the subsequent place of a Writer in India, were unwilling to risk the loss of so valuable an appointment, by placing the power of expulsion for misconduct in the hands of the professors. This seems to have been the real cause of the disorders which have occurred, and which have come before the public with most exaggerated circumstances. The whole proceedings of the college are regularly laid before a committee of the directors; and that body certainly has not confided sufficient powers to the heads of the college to enable them to enforce due discipline. Their authority has, indeed, been recently somewhat extended, but without greater power, the college can scarcely be expected to become so beneficial to our Indian Empire, as the high talents of the professors, in the list of whom are the illustrious names of Sir James Mackintosh and Mr Malthus, give the public a right to expect.

The course of study continues two years, and commences at such an age, that the students may be ready to proceed to India by the time they are eighteen or nineteen years old; and having begun the study of the Oriental languages, they are prepared to prosecute them in Calcutta, so as to proceed to their official appointments by the time they have attained the age of twenty or twenty-one.

Each pupil, of whom there are eighty, pays L. 100 per annum to the college; this lessens the expense of the establishment, and reduces it to less than L. 10,000 a year; whereas the expense of the college at Calcutta, founded by Lord Wellesley, amounted in one year to upwards of L. 70,000, and in several subsequent years to more than L. 40,000.

(w. w.)