II. Madras. Thomas's Mount, where the officers of the artillery could be instructed in the several processes, which (whilst the carriages are made at Vepery) they unfortunately have no means of inspecting. But this is a digression from my subject, on which I have already said, and, I fear, with the prolixity attendant on hasty writing, everything that occurs to me. 9. I had written thus far when the accompanying original memorandums by my two colleagues, Major Lawford and Captain Collyer, were brought to me for despatch, I having called for an expression of your opinions in pursuance of their desires that I should do so. 10. Major Lawford's paper seems rather to the best means of obtaining qualified youths for subordinate employment in the Department of Public Works, at the earliest possible moment, than to the organization of the third department in a general civil engineering college. The only objection that I see to the suggestion contained in para. 1, is, that probably several of the present survey pupils, under a mistaken sense of being degraded by the manual operations in Major Maitland's school, will decline to attend, and by their withdrawal from the Survey school we shall lose the benefit of their previous teaching, which has been of a kind to make them, in the present dearth of qualified agents, exceedingly useful, and eagerly sought for by officers in the Mofussil, who can confide minor, but indispensable, processes to them, which they have not leisure to undertake themselves, to the great detention of public business, often very important. Nevertheless, as it has been ruled that henceforth handicraft knowledge shall always be combined with that of books, this objection must, I conclude, be overruled; but the probable loss thus entailed happens to be peculiarly ill timed, and it will occur at a juncture when numerous projects have been sent back to the provinces as rejected from the current budget, owing to defective preparation, in remedying which pupils from the Survey school would have been of the greatest use. In respesct to the 2d para., it may apply to Major Maitland's, but hardly to Mr. O'Hara's pupils, the latter being only instructed if they evince aptitude and ability. The 3d para. is generally deprecatory of a fusion of the Ordnance school with the new college; and the 14th para. advances the opinion that boys will not work at trades without being paid for doing so. I have nothing particular to say to Captain Collyer's paper, which strikes me as peculiarly obscure; but I gather generally from it that the writer is greatly averse to the Ordnance school becoming the third department of the Madras College for Civil Engineering. Central Office of Public Works, I have, &c. (signed) C. E. Faber, Colonel, MEMORANDUM by Captain G. C. Collyer. MAJOR MAITLAND'S school is one in which boys enlisted for the Carnatic ordnance artificers are, in addition to their actual work, educated in a higher branch of education, that they may become surveyors, &c. The consequence is, that their education as handicraftsmen is less complete than it would be were the prospect of becoming surveyors not held out to them; and so long as there is the greater difference in pay, so, of course, will boys strive to gain the higher grade, and to make Major Maitland's school what it now is not, viz., a school for mechanics; they should, either in the railway workshops, or the Dowlaiswaram workshops, under such practical men as Messrs. Wright and Merrall, and scientific men, such as Captain Hutchinson, go through such an apprenticeship as the former of these two gentlemen knows well exists in England; those of these, thus educated, who evince that skill which could ensure them employment on good salaries in England, should have the opportunity of employment here, and of such remuneration as would keep them to their employment. The boys in the Survey school are generally of a better description than those originally enlisted for the Carnatic ordnance artificers; but I do not think that qualified boys from Major Maitland's school should be excluded from the Survey school; if they can pass an examination and wish to become surveyors, they should cease to be ordnance artificers. I do not see why Major Maitland's school should be interfered with or form in any way a part of the civil engineer college; nor do I see the use of men who are to be educated as civil engineers, being educated as mere mechanics. The kind of carpentry at Major Maitland's school is not such as to be generally useful to civil engineers, though particularly so to that description of mechanist called, I believe, millwrights, in England, the perhaps lowest grade of the mechanical engineer, and this particular branch of engineering will be better acquired as above pointed out. If it. be thought necessary for boys to go through Major Maitland's course, there could be no difficulty in a certain number being formed into a class and sent there for instruction; but I am of opinion that the Superintending Engineer's yard would offer better instruction in the carpentry of roofs, centerings for bridges, &c., while neither of them give any instruction whatever in the varied practical knowledge of the mechanist that could be gained in the railway or Dowlaiswaram shops. Let both institutions be distinct; let Major Maitland's recruits, if qualified, enter the college, ceasing to belong to the "artificers," and run their chance; let the college students go to Major Maitland's, or the Superintending Engineer's, or the Dowlaiswaram workshops, and let the two classes be paid as they would in England, according II. Madras. according to their actual efficiency, and the line of life that each is to pursue will declare itself to the students, who will choose that in which they are most likely to excel. I AM of opinion that to meet the immediate wants of the Department of Public Works the boys now employed in the Survey school under the Chief Engineer may be sent to the gun-carriage manufactory, and there trained in the same manner as the artificer pupils, and that the best lads of the whole establishment should be drafted off as their services are required for the Engineer Department. 2. As soon as it is decided that any pupil is not likely to make a good surveyor, he should discontinue the practice of surveying, and his whole time should be given to the trade he may be intended to follow; for admitting the principle of leaving to all the pupils the opportunity of becoming surveyors, if their talents are such as to render them good ones, there can be no advantage in taking up the time of men who never can be anything but mechanical engineers, by studies which will not be of practical use to them. 3. When the engineering college is built, there must, of necessity, be a school in it for practical mechanics, which cannot be permanently connected with the gun-carriage manufactory, as that establishment may be in a few years under an officer not employed in the engineer college, but so long as Major Maitland remains the Superintendent, the schools. may be combined under his discretion. 4. I consider a monthly stipend indispensable for pupils who study handicraft. Fort St. George, 27 March 1856. (signed) Commissioner's Office, Public Works, (signed) E. Lawford, (No. 888 A.)--Ordered, that the following letter be despatched to the Govern- No. 17. ment of India, with reference to their orders contained in Colonel Baker's letter above referred to: (No. 888.) From T. Pycroft, Esq., Chief Secretary to Government, to Secretary to the No. 17 A. Government of India, Public Works Department. Sir, WITH reference to my letter to your address, under date the 2d ultimo, on the subject of the Madras Civil Engineering College and Major Maitland's school, I am directed by the Right Honourable the Governor in Council to forward, for submission to the Right Honourable the Governor General in Council, the accompanying report, with its accompaniments, on the same question, from the Director of Public Instruction. 2. From this it will be seen that Major Maitland has, agreeably to the instructions of this Government, replied to the inquiry made to him by the Director of Public Instruction. It appears from Major Maitland's answer, that he considers it to be the desire of the Supreme Government, that not only the general direction of the practical instruction in the contemplated college, but the general superintendence of the entire institution, is to be entrusted to him, or in other words, that he is to be appointed principal of the new college. 3. For the views of the Director of Public Instruction on this question, reference must be made to his letter. The conclusion at which he has arrived in para. 11, that supposing, as he conceives to be the intention of the Government of India, that Major Maitland's school of ordnance artificers is to be amalgamated with the projected civil engineering college, the only possible means of effecting this object is to place the entire institution under Major Maitland's charge, and to make the workshops attached to the gun-carriage manufactory, with such extensions as 186 (II.)-Sess. 2. II. Madras. Para. 6. See his Letter, p. 8-10. No. 31. Public Works may be found necessary, the means of imparting to the candidates for the two departments such practical instruction as may be requisite for each. "This," he submits," is the only feasible mode of carrying out the proposed amalgamation; but it is clearly inconsistent with the eventual separation of the offices of superintendent of the gun-carriage manufactory and of superintendent of the practical instruction in the engineering college, for which the Government of India have deemed it necessary to provide; for if the workshops of the gun-carriage manufactory are to form an essential feature in the scheme of the projected college, which he thinks it is manifest that they must, in any scheme which provides for the training of the ordnance artificers, it follows that the superintendence of that manufactory and the superintendence of the training school must be vested in the same person. There would otherwise be a constant collision of authority, which would be fatal to the success of the scheme." 4. On this ground alone the Director states he would have felt himself bound to solicit a reconsideration of the orders conveyed in your letter of the 12th January last; but he refers to other circumstances connected with Major Maitland's school, on which he is disposed to think that much misapprehension exists, and which should be fully considered before any final decision is passed on the question at issue; these circumstances being that, according to his views, as more fully set forth in paras. 13-16 of his letter, the merit of the school has been overrated, and that neither in the practical nor in the theoretical department has its success been such as has been hitherto supposed. Mr. Arbuthnot likewise submits a letter from the Chief Engineer, objecting to the amalgamation of Major Maitland's school with the civil engineering college, although "he is aware of no reason why the present superintendent of the gun-carriage manufactory should not be invited to preside over the workshops (distinct from his own) which are to form the third department of the new college." It would seem, however, that Major Maitland is not disposed to accept the charge of that department, or any post short of that of superintendent of the entire institution. 5. The Director lastly requests that Colonel Faber's letter (with the other papers) and a memorandum from Lieutenant Colonel Cotton, of the 1st September last, may be forwarded for the consideration of the Right Honourable the Governor General in Council. The report of Colonels Faber and Cotton contains, he states, a clear exposition of the description of practical instruction that is required for the Public Works Department, and Colonel Cotton's remarks, as to the fittest mode of educating artificers, appear to him to be deserving of the most serious consideration. 6. As one of the questions discussed by the Director in his report, viz. as to the position to be occupied by Major Maitland in the proposed engineering college, has already been referred by this Government for the further instructions of the Supreme Government, I am directed to forward the report and its enclosures, that it may be laid before the Right Honourable the Governor General in Council, with the papers now before him. I am at the same time desired to state, that in their present uncertainty as to the precise intention of the Government of India regarding the connexion between the Ordnance school and the engineering college, this Government do not offer an opinion upon the views held by the Director relative to the merits of the instruction imparted in the former institution. I have, &c. (signed) Fort St. George 31 July 1856. T. Pycroft, EXTRACT Fort St. George Public Diary to Consultation of 9th September 1856. (No. 3846.) From Lieut. Colonel W. E. Baker, Secretary to the Government of India to I AM directed to acknowledge your letter of the 2d June, soliciting from the Government of India an explanation as to the position which it was intended that that Major Maitland should hold in connexion with the Civil Engineering College at Madras. 2. You submit for solution by the Supreme Government the question "whether it is meant that Major Maitland shall, as he considers, be made the head of the college, with special charge of the practical course of instruction, or whether, as supposed by Mr. Arbuthnot, he is to be the head of the third department of the college, all departments however being required to attend, more or less, for the purpose of receiving practical instruction in the workshops under his charge." 3. The Governor General in Council does not find in the correspondence forwarded by you any authority for the statement that Major Maitland considers that he is to be the principal, but his Lordship assumes that the Government of Madras had good grounds for putting the question in that form. 4. The Government of India is sensible of the debt of gratitude that is due to Major Maitland for his earnest and successful exertions in the walk that he has chosen for himself, and it was very far from their intention to put upon him the slight of offering him a position no' higher than that of head of the third and lowest class in the proposed college. But it was as little the intention of the Government of India to indicate Major Maitland as the principal of the college. Whether he should be, or who should be the principal of the college, is a question that must rest entirely with the Government of Madras to decide, and the decision will of course hinge not on claims based upon other services, but on qualifications for this particular post. There is a wide difference, it need scarcely be said, between the work which Major Maitland has so well performed, and the duty of organizing and guiding an institution of such large scope as the contemplated college. The qualifications which have produced results so successful in the one task, are not of necessity adapted equally to the other. 5. Before saying more on the subject of Major Maitland's personal position, his Lordship the Governor General in Council directs me to communicate a few observations on the mode of dealing with that officer's school in connexion with the new college. These observations must be held to be in supersession, as well as in explanation of the part of my letter of 12th January, No. 94, which referred to this branch of the subject. Although Major Maitland's school may be made a useful accessory to the Civil Engineering College, and one which shall render it unnecessary to consider the question of establishing purely educational workshops (the objections to which are very strong) his Lordship thinks it would be unwise to incorporate the school with the college in such manner as to alter in any material degree the position of Major Maitland's scholars. These scholars are for the most part enlisted. Their schooling lasts about five years; and at the end of that time the best among them, after passing through a higher course of teaching for that purpose, become surveyors and overseers, and cease to be attached to the orduance. The rest become ordnance artificers. The salaries obtained by the first class far exceed those that can be reached by the second; and if Major Maitland's scholars shall not be enlisted, and shall be free to choose the aim of their studies for themselves, all will wish to be surveyers, and none artificers; and the main purpose, though the less ambitious. one of Major Maitland's school would be lost. A rejected surveyor who had neglected to perfect himself as a practical artizan, would make a very poor ordnance artificer. The Governor General in Council is therefore of opinion that Major Maitland's school should continue to train enlisted scholars under military discipline, and that the school should not be fused into the college; but it may still be connected with the college, to the benefit of both. It may be the practical training school at which the students of the college shall learn the use of tools and machinery, each class according to its requirements; the third class, or artificers, practically and thoroughly, and the higher classes more generally, and so as to fit them for superintendence rather than practice. No contrivance can prevent the college, once established, from drawing to itself some of that grade of learners who now seck Major Maitland's school 186 (II.)-Sess. 2. II. Madras. II. Madras. No. 32. voluntarily, to qualify themselves as surveyors or overseers; indeed, the college is intended for that purpose. But in order that Major Maitland's school may not thereby be deprived of the prizes which are now held out to its most promising students, and which are acting as a stimulus to all, a certain number of scholarships in the college might with great advantage be offered for competition in the school, giving to those who obtain them the opportunity of finishing their higher education under advantages greater than they at present enjoy. Major Maitland should be authorised to add to his working sheds and forges, if, without such addition, he apprehends obstruction to the main purpose of his establishment, from the introduction of pupils at working hours. Nothing should be spared to secure the gun-carriage manufactory against injury to its efficiency. He might be designated "Director of Practical Teaching," or of "College Artificers," not being at the head of any one class, but receiving all in turn. He would be, although subordinate to the principal as regards the college, entirely his own master as regards his own branch of instruction. It seems to the Governor General in Council, that such an arrangement as this would secure for the college the best practical training available to it, with some gain to Major Maitland's school, and without any disparagement of the claims which that officer has upon the consideration of the Government. Fort William, I have, &c. (signed) W. E. Baker, Lieutenant Colonel, (No. 1071.)-Resolved, That a copy of the above letter be furnished to the Director of Public Instruction, in reference to the previous correspondence on the subject, and that he be requested to give his opinion as to the manner in which he would propose to work out the views of the Government of India in respect to Major Maitland's school, as indicated in the concluding paras. (5 et ' seq.) of Colonel Baker's letter. Fort St. George, 6 September 1856. No. Public Works EXTRACT Fort St. George Public Diary to Consultation of 21st October 1856. (No. 4378.) From Lieutenant Colonel W. E. Baker, Secretary to the Government of India, to T. Pycroft, Esq., Chief Secretary to the Government of Fort St. George. Sir, I AM directed to acknowledge receipt of your letter, No. 888, dated 31st July last, submitting further correspondence regarding the connexion of Major Maitland's school with the Civil Engineering College at Madras. 2. The views and suggestions of the Right Honourable the Governor General in Council, on this subject, were communicated in my letter of the 8th ultimo, No. 3846, and I am instructed by his Lordship in Council to repeat, that the personal question of appointment to the principalship of the college, is one exclusively for the Government of Madras to decide. 3. There is one point, however, in connexion with this subject, to which his Lordship in Council directs me to allude. Major Maitland now distinctly claims the appointment in question; and he founds his claim in part, on a supposed promise by the late Governor General. In this, Major Maitland labours under a misapprehension; for in a Minute recorded by Lord Dalhousie, on the 17th December 1855, his Lordship distinctly declared that officer to be in error in believing that such a promise had been made. It is only proper, the Right Honourable |