Part 443

Every officer admitted to this department is required to have a horse to attend his duty in the field, and regular rations of forage, &c. are issued to him for his keeping.

The officers of the senior department mess together, and their table is regulated by specific statutes of the college.

Junior department.

This department is calculated to receive three hundred students from the age of fourteen to sixteen. Fifty out of this number may be cadets of the hon. East India company’s service; one hundred the sons of noblemen and gentlemen who are intended for the army; one hundred the sons of officers actually in the service; and fifty the sons of officers who have died, or have been disabled in his majesty’s service, and are left in pecuniary distress.

The students are formed into four companies; and proper persons are appointed for their care and superintendance.

They are to wear an established uniform, and to be conducted as a military body; regard being had to their youth, and certain instructions adapted for its government.

The course of study which is arranged for this department is of a preparatory nature, leading gradually to branches of a higher class that are fitted for the staff; and adding to classical knowlege, every accomplishment that is required to form the character of a perfect gentleman and officer.

The students are taught the several branches of mathematics, field fortification, together with the general principles of gunnery and artillery service. They are instructed in drawing military plans, military movements, and perspective. They are also made acquainted with the first rudiments of war, the science of military manœuvre, with geography and history, as well as with the German and French languages. Professors and masters are appointed to teach the Hindoo and Persian tongues, as being immediately necessary to the service of India. Masters are likewise provided to instruct cadets in the geography of India, and to make them familiarly acquainted with the local knowlege of the settlement for which they are severally intended.

The directors of instruction are made particularly responsible for the proper management of the studies, and different elementary branches which constitute an essential part of the establishment.

The professors and masters are employed generally to instruct in both departments, under the control of the chief director.

The whole establishment, which has military knowlege and improvement for its basis, is conducted upon strict military principles, and in scrupulous conformity to the rules and discipline which are issued by authority for the government of the army at large.

A sufficient number of masters are constantly resident in the college, for the instruction of such students as may wish to continue their classical studies. Frequent lessons are given them on moral and natural philosophy.

They are likewise taught riding, swimming, fencing, and the sabre and sword exercise.

The instruction of the department is divided into two parts, forming a junior and senior division of study.

Public examinations are held in this department, in order to remove students from the lower to the higher division of study; and also for the purpose of granting certificates to such as are qualified to act as commissioned officers in the service, at an age under what is required by the present regulations of the army.

From this department students will join the regiments into which they severally enter; and after having obtained some experience, by going through the different duties of a regimental officer, they will be qualified to return to the college, and to enter into the senior department, if they are disposed to study the service of the general staff.

The public examinations are held in presence of one or more visitors or inspectors, nominated by the commander in chief; and it is required, that they should be members of the supreme board of the college.

The expence attending the education of a young gentleman in this department, is according to the foundation on which he is admitted to the college.

The sons of noblemen and gentlemen pay 80l. per annum.

The sons of officers in service pay 40l. per annum; and orphans, who are the sons of officers that have died in the service, or the sons of those that have been disabled and are straitened in circumstances, are educated, clothed, and maintained free of all expence.

The board, clothing, and accommodation, are included in the several sums above specified.

There are two vacations in the course of twelve months, viz.--At Christmas and Midsummer, for a term not exceeding one month each vacation.

The administration of the funds of the establishment, is under the direction of the collegiate board.

The accounts are balanced at the expiration of six months in every year, and are laid before the supreme board; at which periods, reports of progress made in the several branches of literature and technical science, and of the public examinations, are made before the committee. These documents, accompanied by well digested remarks and seasonable suggestions, for the preservation of good order, &c. and the improvement of the institution, are laid before the king by the commander in chief, as president and governor of the college.

The supreme board of the college is composed in the following manner:

The commander in chief for the time being, president.

Secretary at war.

Governor.