THE HONORABLE SADAGOPAH CHARLOO.

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One man, one of our best specimens of what education can do, has passed from among us during the past year, the Honorable SADAGOPAH CHARLOO: and certainly no review of the educational year would be complete without a tribute to his memory. He was one of the most distinguished Proficients of the High School, one of the best of the many estimable men whose nurture and tuition have endeared the name of MR. POWELL to the Native Community. He was a standing practical refutation of the sneer, that the educated Native is a wind bag of offensive self conceit, and that in after life he falls back into indolence, and relapses into indifference and ignorance. All who had the pleasure of knowing him were struck with his singular modesty. His labours at the Bar, and his valuable collection of scientific instruments, show how continuous was his work, and how eager his self-culture. By his integrity and labour, without any remarkably brilliant talents, he worked his way to the first practice among the Native Bar, and kept it against the European. He moved ever with the times, and was as usefully, as sincerely, patriotic; he was an independent thinker and inquirer, investigating subjects dispassionately, and fearlessly committing his ultimate conclusions to the judgment of the public. He will ever be remembered as the first Native Legislative Councillor in this Presidency; in him the Native Community has sustained a very heavy loss; for he was certainly a man who would have rendered them and the Government excellent service in his capacity of Legislator. He was well qualified for that important office by the extent of his acquirements; and I believe he took a just measure of the scope of his Legislative functions. He was not one of those who fancy that Legislation is the panacea for all evils. In this country, as he thought, good administration is of far more importance than Legislation, which ought to be confined as nearly as possible to correction rather than to novel experiment, though all legislation is

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INDIAN LEGISLATION.

necessarily more or less tentative. Those who compare the Statute Book since the year 1834 with the Regulations from 1802 up to that period, cannot certainly accuse the Legislature of sloth or idleness. Especially has there been a most stirring activity of late years. And as the complications of society advancing in civilization become more intricate, no doubt new interests keep springing up, which it is the peculiar province of the Legislature to care for: but I think it may well be questioned whether Legislation in a country like the India of the present day, and with our power of government, is not a secondary consideration, when compared with administration. We have recently introduced very grave changes in India. Our policy is to watch how they work, rather than to press for more innovations. We must see that our present standing ground is safe before we attempt to advance further. Our chief danger arises from a wish to go too fast, not too slow. Patience, not precipitation, should be our watchword now. Those who see only the results in the published Acts of the Legislature give but little credit to the Legislator for his silent labors; because they do not mark, and therefore can form only a very poor and inadequate estimate of the amount of labor, care, accuracy, thought, deliberation, knowledge, and judgment, which are called into play in the act of hammering a Bill into the shape in which it ultimately makes its appearance before the Public. These were all qualifications remarkably concentrated in the late Honorable SADAGOPAH CHARLOO; whose premature death spread a mournful sense of national calamity among the Native Public. The Government has however selected as his successor the man who would probably have been called to the post by the almost unanimous suffrage of his fellow countrymen, my old and esteemed friend LUCHMENARASU CHETTY.

The educational lesson I would seek to teach from all this,

RETROSPECT.

133 the educational moral I would seek to impress upon the minds of the rising generation, is this: that, as a general rule, they will see the best man, best in point of acquirements, conduct, and labour, in the long run, ever rising to the top.

The Natives of the rising generation have their lot cast in lucky times. Twenty years ago he would have been deemed a visionary and a dreamer, who had ventured to predict that so many paths to elevation, and wealth, and distinction would be open to the Natives, as we witness at the present day. The European who observes and reflects, cannot but feel that every year the Native is pressing him more closely in all the professions of life. In the Mercantile world, I see the most marked charge within my own experience. There the Natives have literally taken a leaf out of the merchant's book: and, instead of contenting themselves with subordinate positions as Dubashes, Shroffs, and the like, they have launched into business on their own account; and, if one may judge by the increasing number of Native firms, with a success that fully justifies this dependence upon themselves. So in every other walk of life, we see the avenues thrown open: whether in the Legislative, the Judicial, or the Revenue departments. Competition is already considerable, and as numbers increase, it must yearly become more and more severe. What I want the rising generation to bear in mind-to place and keep ever steadily before their eyes is this; that success is not to be looked for, as a general rule, through influence, or interest, or luck, but will fall to those who make the best use of their opportunities of obtaining a sound general education while they are young, and who in after life are most conspicuous for their perseverance in hard work, and their constancy in honesty of action.

There are many institutions where the foundation for success may be laid, scattered over the country: none wherein

it is more freely offered than in this Institution. The applications for admission which have reached us during the past year from all parts of the country show that its reputation has passed beyond the local limits of the capital. Knowing what care is taken of our boys, I am not surprized at this, though I will not attempt to conceal my gratification. Could our benevolent founder see the effect of his munificence gradually spreading itself over the whole presidency, instead of being confined to Madras itself, his large heart would swell with pride and affection truly parental, as he witnessed such unexpected results of his bequests.

It only remains for me to invite your grateful recollection to the memory of our founder, PATCHEAPPAH.

ADDRESS on the Twenty-second Anniversary of Patcheappah's Institution: 1865.

MAY IT PLEASE YOUR EXCELLENCY.*-The Report of the Central Institution, which we have just heard read, may, I think, be considered as satisfactory. The attendance has averaged 94 per cent. There has certainly been a fluctuation in the number of pupils. At the end of 1863 it was 706 at the end of 1864, 640, leaving a deficiency of 66. But this is in part attributable to the seduction, of novelty in the form of a new School at Vepery, from which however I am happy to see that many of our deserters have returned to us. Partly, also, the change whereby, instead of admitting pupils at the commencement of every month, we have restricted their entrance to fixed half yearly periods. But this temporary deficiency is no sign that the Institution. has fallen off in Native estimation, because the present numbers have again risen to 730; and the report of our Principal is satisfactory on this point. He says:-"Being aware that the Trustees have under their consideration a scheme for separating the Junior from the Senior Department and locating it in a distinct building, I did not publish the usual notice in the papers inviting candidates for admission into the School at the beginning of this year, but simply intimated to our pupils, before we broke up for the Christmas holidays, that the names of a few would be registered between the 21st and 23rd December, for admission into those classes only whose numbers should be found to be less than 30, the full complement of each class. But notwithstanding this short notice, nearly 300 names were registered during the brief interval of 3 days. And when the School re

* Sir William Denison,