50
BARBADOS.
the head of the avenue. It contains a large school-room with a niche, where the statue of Codrington ought certainly to be placed, a chapel very much out of order, a library with a few good books and plenty of rubbish, and spacious accommodations for sleeping up stairs. The Principal's lodge is on the same line, but detached from the college, and is without doubt one of the most delectable houses in the Antilles. This institution, though at present all but useless, may be made the foundation and instrument of a great and lasting change in the entire West Indies. That it was originally intended as a university for youths and not a mere school for boys is evident from the terms of the founder's will, and it is in this light alone, and with a view of commencing and ultimately perfecting this character of it, that it deserves the most serious attention of the trustees, the insular legislatures, and even the government at home. It is quite monstrous that the object of so magnificent a charity, and such large actual funds, should be the support and instruction of fourteen or fifteen boys, who might be educated much better elsewhere in the island. If the colony were wanting in schools, which it is not, still the college would be a very objectionable school from various causes connected with the mode of maintenance, and the contact with slaves, which it is not necessary to specify here; but in reality, as a school, the college is lost for all great purposes of improvement; it may