Despatch of Court of Directors to Governor General, September 4, 1850

Despatch, dated 4th September 1850, from the Court of Directors to the Governor General.

        1. We fully appreciate the intentions of Mr. Bethune in the establishment of a female school in on the state Of female school Calcutta and approve the instructions which you have addressed to the Council of Education through the Government of Bengal, to encourage in every way not inconsistent with the efficiency of the institutions already under their management every disposition shown by respectable natives to establish similar seminaries.

        2. But with reference to the opinions and feelings of the natives in respect of female seclusion, great caution and prudence will be required in carrying out that part of your instructions of the 11th April 1850, which directs the Chief Civil officers of the Mofussil to use all the means at their disposal for encouraging these institutions.

        3. We do not think that the present state of female education is such as to warrant the unusual proceeding of applying for the sanction of Her Majesty's name to the Female School at Calcutta.

We are &C.,
JOHN SHEPHERD (and others)

LONDON,
The 4th September 1850

From: Bureau of Education. Selections from Educational Records, Part II (1840-1859). Edited by J. A. Richey. Calcutta: Superintendent Government Printing, 1922. Reprint. Delhi: National Archives of India, 1965, 61.