| Description | 3 Apr: Schoolmaster, Reynolds, is leaving to recuperate his health in Ireland; Corrie doubts if he is an asset to CMS to judge from the tone of his letter; the Parent Committee will judge from the papers Corrie is sending; Faul is inadequate to manage the English school; two monitors have been engaged and the bishop who is an excellent teacher, frequently stays an hour or two to regulate the school and teaches the first class; native teachers are the real answer to the problem; the bishop is making Bishop's College a nursery of sound education; two CMS students have been admitted; he is also taking up the idea of a grammar school for Calcutta [Kolkata], which could be preparatory to the college; the plan is to keep education and boarding as separate departments, and to insist on regular payments for education; another scheme in mind is the endowment of established missions to relieve the burden of the mother country; the governor-general is opposed to endowment, and his system of increasing land tax as improvements advance prevents endowments being provided by purchase of land; if the home government would rermit the quit-rent the East India Company takes, the certainty of undisturbed possession would make land a productive source of income; though a disappointment as concerns helping missions, the governor is doing fine work e.g. the abolition of suttee, and giving inaugurators of projects a right in the soil, which will accustom the natives to innovations; since government refuses aid to Christian exertions support will have to be raised independently; Corrie urges Phipps to press these matters with men of influence in view of the approaching renewal of the East India Company's charter; grieves at Deerr's ill-health and the conduct of Eteson; Wilkinson alone remains true to his engagements |