ls have been
frequently visited by the missionary and his native assistants for the
special object of reading with the pupils portions of the Scriptures,
and inculcating the lessons they contain. Thus readers for our
Scriptures and Christian books have been prepared, who we may hope come
to their perusal with weakened prejudice from the kindly feeling with
which we are regarded. A favourable impression has thus been made on the
minds of parents as well as of pupils.

I have already mentioned that these schools have been utilized for
preaching-stations, and have been well adapted for this purpose. They
have been carried on at small expense. The great drawback has been that
with few exceptions the teachers have been Hindus. They have been of the
Kaisth, the writer caste, who are as a caste less imbued perhaps with
Hinduism than any other. When Christians have been available their
services have of course been thankfully secured. For some years the
Hindu element has been gradually withdrawn from the teaching staff. Two
of the early teachers in our time became Christians, one having been
baptized in our Mission, and the other in the Church Mission at Benares.

The whole state of primary education in the North-West, I may say in
India, is on a very different footing from what it was in 1840. Great
progress in every department of education has been made since that time.
Considering the vast importance of primary education, the advancement
has not been so great as might have been expected, but there is every
prospect of its being largely extended in the immediate future. It is
hoped that one outcome of the Education Commission which is now sitting
will be the gathering into schools of many thousands of the young who
have been hitherto neglected.

In most Missions of any standing, even where the chief attention has
been given to direct evangelistic work, some provision has been made for
secondary education. A school with this object was established in our
Mission in 1845. It was taught in a well-sized native house, and was
afterwards transferred to a larger building. It had successive
superintendents, the late Mr. Sherring, Mr. Blake, and myself. It was a
longer time under Mr. Sherring than under any other, and in it he
laboured very diligently and efficiently. It received the name of the
Central School, as our idea was to transfer to it the best boys from
what we called the Bazar schools. It was intended to allow none to ente