1 Its advan-
2 tages.
3 356 HISTORY OF THE SIKHS.
4 r
5 supporters of his plan. The European soldier,
6 however, is not sufficiently alive to the blessing
7 opening to his child. Deriving some pecuniary
8 advantage from his children, more than sufficient
9 to maintain them under his own eye, his views
10 extend no further than to see them in the ranks;
11 and he deems even a limited education calculated
12 to render his son discontented with his lot! The
13 same contracted views influence his conduct to-
14 wards his daughters, whose highest ambition is to
15 marry a non-commissioned officer, or perchance a
16 conductor ; indeed, in either case, he imagines
17 that too much learning would instil into his off-
18 spring notions of gentility incompatible with their
19 sphere in life. Acting on such ideas, he is per-
20 fectly satisfied with the efforts of the regimental
21 schoolmaster or mistress. But, independent of
22 the enlarged views of Major Lawrence as regards
23 education, he places considerable stress on the
24 advantages of climate which such an institution
25 in the hills would confer. On this point there can
26 exist no doubt in the minds of those who have
27 witnessed the pallid, sickly countenances of the
28 children of both European officers and soldiers in
29 the plains of India, where the mortality is great
30 among both.
31 The improved morals of the children are, how-
32 ever, the chief advantage which the Major con-
33 templates ; and there can be little doubt that
34 these would attain a ‘higher standard in the hills