SCOTCHMEN IN INDIA.

Globe, Volume III, Issue 229, 4 March 1875, Page 3

SCOTCHMEN IN INDIA.

At a meeting held in London on December 27th, to promote the extension of the University of Edinburgh, presided over by the Duke of Edinburgh, the following letter from Sir Bartle Frere, addressed to Dr George Birdwood, was read :—"I particularly wished for an opportunity cf saying how much we in India—in Western India, at all events —owed to the Scotch Universities, and to Edinburgh in particular. You know that for half a century in Bombay the services were greatly recruited from Scotland, owing to the influence of Elphinstone, Malcolm, Sir Charles Forbes, and other good bcots, who will long be remembered there, and I, as an Englishman with no claim to Scotch blood, may be admitted as an unbiassed witness to the admirable national service they did. I could, if I had time, recoant a long list of Scotch University men, distinguished in science and literature, who devoted their lives and labors to Western India—the two Grahams, Malcolmsen, Stack, yourself, and Forbes Watson, George Buist, Hislop, and above all, John Wilson, in science and literature ; and how many of us owe, not only contributions to science, but life and health of body and mind, to McLennan aid Morehead, Peet, Peile, Giraud, and many otheis who devoted to their noble professions in those distant lands abilities which would have placed them high among their fellows in their own country. How much, too, of all the excellence of the Scottish element in our Indian services came to Scotchmen in India from their Universities, as it were, at secondhand. We have innumerable instances of Scotchmen who have distinguished themselves in India who never had any school learning but what they got at their parish school. But I have often thought that, if we could get the good dominie and his pupil into the witness-box, we should find that much of the staunch'thoroughness and logical accuracy which had made the pupil what he was, had come to him from the dominie's curriculum at the Scotch University, quite as much as from the Scotch blood of the pupil. Of late years we have not got quite such a large proportion of our Indian servants from Scotland and the Scotch Universities as formerly; and, appreciating as highly as I do the Scotch element in our services, I have regarded the change as a national misfortune. I was consequently greatly rejoiced when I heard from you and my old and valued friend Sir Alexander Grant, who has done so much for University education in India, that a great effort was to be made for University extension in Scotland, and most gladly would I have done anything in my power to aid in such a work. It is consequently no small disappointment to me to find that lam unable to be present, and I shall be much obliged to you, if you have an opportunity, to convey the expression of my regret to the gentlemen who have the arrangement of the meeting. It was an additional cause of regret that I should be absent when I heard that we should have been honoured with the presence of the Duke of Edinburgh as chairman."