y of Calcutta to follow them in this.
It was left to Sir Charles Aitchison, when he wielded the power and the
influence of the Lieutenant-Governor, to do in 1882 what the Serampore
College would have accomplished had its founders been young instead of
old men, by establishing the Punjab University.

Lord Hastings and even Sir John Malcolm took a personal interest in the
Serampore College. The latter, who had visited the missionaries since
his timid evidence before the House of Lords in 1813, wrote to
them:--"I wish I could be certain that your successors in the serious
task you propose would have as much experience as you and your
fellow-labourers at Serampore--that they would walk, not run, in the
same path--I would not then have to state one reserve." Lord Hastings
in Council passed an order encouraging the establishment of a European
Medical Professorship in Serampore College, and engaged to assist in
meeting the permanent expense of the chair when established. His
Excellency "interrupted pressing avocations" to criticise both the
architectural plan of the building and the phraseology of the draft of
the first report, and his suggestions were followed. Adopting one of
the Grecian orders as most suitable to a tropical climate, the Danish
Governor's colleague, Major Wickedie, planned the noble Ionic building
which was then, and is still, the finest edifice of the kind in British
India.

"The centre building, intended for the public rooms, was a hundred and
thirty feet in length, and a hundred and twenty in depth. The hall on
the ground floor, supported on arches, and terminated at the south by a
bow, was ninety-five feet in length, sixty-six in breadth, and twenty
in height. It was originally intended for the library, but is now
occupied by the classes. The hall above, of the same dimensions and
twenty-six feet in height, was supported by two rows of Ionic columns;
it was intended for the annual examinations. Of the twelve side-rooms
above and below, eight were of spacious dimensions, twenty-seven feet
by thirty-five. The portico which fronted the river was composed of
six columns, more than four feet in diameter at the base. The
staircase-room was ninety feet in length, twenty-seven in width, and
forty-seven in height, with two staircases of cast-iron, of large size
and elegant form, prepared at Birmingham. The spacious grounds were
surrounded with iron railing, and the front entrance was adorned with a
no