reason why with an improved system of scientific education, and, with just and sympathetic treatment of the young men trained in science, they will not be able to take that place in modern scientific world which they may be expected to do under the rule of one of the foremost nations of the world. The reason of the recent success of the Japanese in the field of science is that their young men, trained under western scientists, instead of being thwarted, discouraged, and set down as incapable, have been aided, encouraged, and stimu lated by their Government to pursue science."*

In regard to higher technical education, progress during the last two decades has, I regret to say, been practically nil in Bengal. A Technical Institute worthy of the name is as much a desideratum now as it was twenty years ago. Some so-called technical schools have been established within the period; but the teaching imparted in them is almost exclusively confined to surveying, carpentry and black-smith's work and is not culculated to enable the alumni to take any part in the development of the resources of their country. Within the period under review manganese mining has been started and developed to the status of an important industry, the expansion of the coal, petroleum and jute * O cit. Vol. III,, pp. 56-99,

industries has gone on steadily, and in the case of the mining industries by leaps and bounds. But all this has been effected almost exclusively by Western capital and Western enterprises.

Coal mining is probably the principal industry of Bengal. But hitherto there has been no arrangement for the proper teaching of mining in any institution in Bengal. It is only during the present year that a class in mining has been opened at the Engineering College at Shibpore. There is a large field for metal lurgy in India, but I am not aware of any institution in this country which gives any training in that subject. A Commission appointed five years ago to recommend measures for the furtherance of technical education suggested the establishment of six institutes of indus trial experiment and instruction at an approximate capital and annual cost of Rs. 3,30,000, and Rs. 1,87,000 respectively-institutes of texile, metal pottery and china-ware, sericulture, and tanning industries. Not one of them has come into existence, though four years have elapsed since the submission of the report of the Industrial Commission.

I must observe that the blame for this sad neglect of technical education in the past does not rest on Government alone. If my compatriots of Bengal were

as fully convinced of the paramount necessity of such education as our brethren of the Western Presidency, they might ere now have at least had an institution like the Victoria Jubilee Technical Institute of Bombay. A sum of over two lakhs of rupees raised to found a permanent memorial in honour of Lord Ripon formed the nucleus of the fund with which that institute was established. Similar funds have within the past twenty years been also raised in Bengal; but there has been' wanting the earnest desire to apply them for such a purpose of obvious utility as technical education instead of squandering them away on ill-considered schemes which do but little good to the country or on empty and unsubstantial show and pageantry.

The future, however, in the case of technical, as in that of scientific education, appears to be hopeful. The Government of India instituted two years ago scholarships for the technical training of students in Europe. The Government of Bengal has just pledged its word to develop the local Engineering College into a technical institute of the first order. An association recently established in Calcutta has during the last two years been awarding scholarship to students for technical training in Europe, America and Japan. Another association just established is about to start a technical

institute, the first of the kind in Calcutta.

Technical education will also, I am informed, be undertaken by a third association, the National Council of Education, and another body of patriotic gentlemen raised a few months ago a fund, called the National Fund, which, I understand, is going to be devoted mainly to the imparting of education in weaving.

It should be noted, however, that while the collection of so many separate funds just mentioned for technical education within the last six months, is certainly an index of the awakening of Bengal to the gravity of her industrial situation, and, to that extent, an augury of future good, it hardly betokens the full development of the qualifications necessary to grapple with it successfully. The various funds at present available for technical education in Bengal do not, I find, amount altogether to more than ten lakhs of rupees—a sum which is hardly sufficient even for a modest institute like the Victoria Jubilee Technical Institute of Bombay or the Kalabhavan of Baroda; and I need hardly point out, that one wellequipped technical institute is likely to accomplish far more solid work than two or three badly equipped ones.

*This institute has now been established under the name of the Bengal Technical Institute. (Aug. 1906).

(Lecture delivered at the Bristol Museum and Library, March 1880)

THE caste-system, as you are no doubt aware is one of the most characteristic features of the social structure of the Hindus, who constitute about two-thirds of the vast population of India. Caste-regulations govern the life of a Hindu from the moment of his birth to that of his death. His religion is so intimately connected with caste that it is very difficult to say where the one begins and the other ends. Disregard of the ordinances of caste is not only a social crime but a religious heresy. In fact, it would, perhaps, be no exaggeration to say, that with a large class of the Hindus, religion is practically nothing else but the rigid observance of a series of caste rules and regulations.