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Lucknow, 6th April, 1842.

My Dear Mr. Halliday,

We are all wrong here in the Martiniere institution, and you have now
an admirable opportunity of setting all right and doing an infinite
deal of good with little trouble. I know how little you have of time
and attention to devote to such things, and conclude that Mr.
Devereux cannot have much more, and you may feel assured that I shall
do all in my power to assist you. We are here attempting to give the
education of gentlemen to beggar-boys, who must always depend upon
their daily work for their daily bread. The senior boys are in
despair, for they find that they have learnt hardly anything to fit
them for the only employments open to them, and this tends to
discourage the younger ones. The Roorkee Civil Engineering School
seems to have been eminently successful, and a fine field is open to
all who are taught in it. We shall no doubt have a similar field open
in Oude when Government interposes in behalf of the suffering people,
and we might prepare for it by converting the Martiniere into a
similar school or college. The committee has just expressed to you a
hope that Mr. Crank, the officiating principal, may be able to pass
an examination in the native languages. This hope can never be
realised; and if he does I shall have to record my opinion that he is
otherwise unfitted. The power of nominating a principal rests
entirely with the trustees; and if you concur in my views you might
at once prepare for the change by getting a man from England or
elsewhere, such as Mr. Maclagan, the late superintendent of the
Roorkee school, fitted to teach civil engineering in all its
branches. You have the command of funds to provide him with
assistants of all kinds; and we have accommodations and funds to
raise more, and provide machinery, books, &c. The thing might be set
going at once, after you send a competent man to superintend it; and
the work will be honourable to our Government and ourselves, and of
vast benefit to the boys brought up at this Martiniere, and to their
parents and families. If you think favourably of the proposed change,
and will direct the committee to take it into consideration, I will
do my best to make it respond cordially to your call; or if you
direct the measure to be adopted at once, I will see that it is
worked out as it should be. Mr. Crank has a good knowledge