EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION.

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straitened circumstances, generously undertook to meet the charge of his fees from his own pocket. Sashiah thus alludes to this in a letter to Sir Alexander Arbuthnot, K.C.S.I. :—

"You were then a very young civilian and holding the office of Secretary to the High School Board. I was a boy about eleven or twelve years old, who had joined the School on its very first institution in 1840 or 1841. I used to come into your room once a month to pay my school-fee, as the collection or rather the receiving of it was one of your duties. I was too late one month and you were pleased, instead of being displeased at the default, to ask why I was so late with my fee. I pleaded poverty and you smiled. From that day, somehow or other, I became a marked boy, and every succeeding month you inquired how I was getting on, and, among other things, I think I said that Mr. Powell undertook to pay my fee out of his pocket. This rather strengthened your interest in me.”

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But in a few months a change came for the better in his fortunes, and Sashiah was able to pay his own way. Pachaiyappa Mudaliar, wealthy Hindu, who lived towards the close of the eighteenth century, had left about four lacs of rupees for the establishment of charities, chiefly religious. The funds were being misused by the successive executors of his will till the attention of the Government was drawn to it, and through the legal help of Mr. George Norton, Advocate-General, the funds with accumulated interest―amounting in all to nearly eight lacs

of rupees-came to be placed at the disposal of the charities. A body of Trustees was formed, and an English School was established in 1842 for affording gratuitous instruction to native youths in English and the Vernaculars. About the same time an endowment out of these funds was founded in the High School to help deserving lads in poor circumstances. Those who enjoyed the benefit of this endowment were divided into two classes-Pachaiyappa's Free Scholars who had their school-fees paid for them, and Pachaiyappa's Endowed Scholars who received stipends, ranging from Rs. 7 to Rs. 10. Sashiah received a stipend, and he afterwards received a Government stipend which, towards the close of his school-life, reached Rs. 20. This timely help placed him above want, and his heart was ever full of lively feelings of gratitude to this benefactor of the Hindu community. When, in 1894, he was requested to preside on the Commemoration Day of Pachaiyappa's College, he wrote thus in reply: :-

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"I should have started to-day so as to get to Madras tomorrow and be ready to preside on Saturday. But the bronchitis is still very rough on me, and I am for the nonce hors de combat...

The programme is well laid out, and I hope all boys, young and old, will enjoy the day. Please tell them from me that, though not present in body, I shall be with them

in spirit and wish with them for endless commemoration days in eternal gratitude to the great benefactor, Pachaiyappa, to whose munificent bequest so many owe so much of their success in life. Please tell them that I keenly regret my absence; for, as the oldest Pachaiyappa boy living, I should have very much enjoyed the honour and pleasure of presiding on the Commemoration Day.”

As a mark of his gratitude he, later on in life, provided Pachaiyappa's College with an endowment of Rs. 2,000, the interest of which is to go towards two prizes in his name-one for elocution and the other for the best essay in English. It may be mentioned in passing that the three foremost educational institutions in the Presidency town, the Presidency College, the Christian College, and Pachaiyappa's may thus claim him, each, as her oldest boy living.

Other honours also came to him in the course of his student days in the High School. He carried off prizes for hand-writing year after year, till it was ruled that they should not be monopolized by the same scholar. Lord Elphinstone who used to visit the school almost every Tuesday, on his way home from the Council Chamber, as well as many other illustrious visitors, were much impressed by his bold and steady hand. He secured Pachaiyappa's Vernacular prize for the years 1846-47 and also Pachaiyappa's Translation prize of Rs. 70 for the

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best translation into the Vernacular, of a few chapters of Arnold's Lectures on Italy.' In 1847 he gained the Elphinstone prize for an essay on What is civilization?' the like of which, in point of style, Sir Alexander Arbuthnot, Acting Governor of Madras, remarked at the Presidency College Anniversary of 1872, he had not heard read by a native. The Marquis of Tweeddale, who succeeded Lord Elphinstone as Governor of Madras, gave him a reward of Rs. 70, as the following official communication from the Chief Secretary to the President and Governors of the Madras University may show :6th May, 1846.

"I am directed to make known to you the desire of the most noble the Governor in Council to mark the sense he entertains of the merit and general proficiency of Sashiah, the youth whose attainments and good conduct were brought prominently under His Lordship's notice at the late anniversary. His Lordship, anxious to reward general merit, has resolved to bestow a pecuniary prize of Rupees seventy on Sashiah, and has accordingly issued the accompanying order."

The Government had established a Council of Education and had transferred to it a portion of the duties originally entrusted to the University Board. The primary object of the appointment of this new body was to organize and superintend certain public examinations of candidates.

for appointments in the public service and to offer pecuniary rewards to scholars, which were to be decided by an annual public competition. The Council lasted only two years (1845-47) and did not do much practical work, but the first Government reward of Rupees three hundred, which the Council offered, fell to Sashiah. When the foundation stone of Pachaiyappa's College was laid by Mr. George Norton on the 2nd October, 1846, in the midst of a vast concourse of the native inhabitants of Madras, Sashiah wrote a eulogy, on Pachaiyappa and his munificence, which was publicly read on the occasion. It was written by Sashiah, but his stammering which was in those early days extreme prevented him from reading it himself. A silk purse full of gold mohurs was presented to him for it, and the essay appeared in the next issue of the Madras Crescent.

It is worthy of note that Sashiah, when writing an account of these proceedings to his friend, T. Madhava Rao, who, having already taken the Degree, was residing for the time being at Kumbhakonam, forgets to mention the little incident of his obtaining a reward. Madhava Rao writes to Sashiah in a letter, dated 13th October, 1846 :

"I feel highly obliged to you for your having condescended to give me a copious description of the solemn ceremonies