570 



NA TURE 



[April i i, 1901 



Metropolitan polytechnic. Finally, the president is 

 desirous of following the lines adopted at Woolwich 

 and Sandhurst, oblivious of the fact that these are 

 military institutions and that Coopers Hill is a civil 

 scientific College. The proper arrangement for the 

 conduct of such a college as Coopers Hill is, in the 

 opinion of Colonel Ottley, that there should be no inter- 

 communication among the stafif, but that each member 

 of the staff should communicate alone with the presi- 

 dent. The danger of this system of private conferences 

 as leading to misrepresentation is exemplified by the case 

 of Prof. Hearson, whose private consultations with the 

 president are presented in such an extraordinary light 

 by Colonel Ottley (Blue-book, p. 54). It is probably due 

 to this that Prof. Hearson has been dismissed, though the 

 reason adduced by the president was that Dr. Brightmore 

 was debarred from teaching hydraulics, "his strongest 

 subject," because that subject had been allotted to Prof. 

 Hearson. There is, however, conclusive evidence that 

 both professors were desirous of effecting an interchancre 

 of work by which hydraulics would have been handed over 

 to Dr. Brightmore. This evidence the Board of Visitors 

 ignore. Another result of this plan of separate confer- 

 ences has been shown during the past year. The College 

 has been divided into a series of separate camps. 

 Tempted by the secret offers of the president, some of 

 the junior members of the staff have consented to sup- 

 plant their seniors for the modern equivalent of a mess 

 of pottage, which appears, in this instance, to be some- 

 thing under 100/. a year. 



The only charge against the College which appears in 

 the report — and if any other existed we may feel sure 

 the Board of Visitors would have set it forth — is that 

 certain of the telegraph men have been found to be 

 unsatisfactory, and that in some respects the telegraph 

 branch might be improved. No fault of any kind is 

 found with the training of the engineering students, who 

 form by far the larger part of what is essentially an 

 engineering college. 



The criticisms on the telegraph men, of whom there 

 are about three a year, is contained in Appendix 12 of 

 the Report, pp. 131-146 ; and Mr. Pitman, who writes 

 therein, expressly states that his " object is not to unduly 

 criticise the course of instruction at the Coopers Hill 

 College, which has supplied the Department with so 

 many excellent officers^ but to bring to the notice of the 

 responsible authorities that it would be possible to greatly 

 improve the course of instruction and turn out officers 

 with a greater knowledge of the theory and practice of 

 Indian telegraphy than they can now obtain." This 

 report, w-hich is obviously intended, not as an adverse 

 criticism, but as a friendly suggestion to the staff for 

 improvement in details, expressly states that all the 

 physical laboratory work (for which Mr. Shields is 

 responsible) is excellent. 



We have searched the Blue-book in vain for evidence 

 that the Board of Visitors have tried to discover whether 

 any of the suggestions made have been adopted, though 

 Mr. Shields does manage to tell them that those refer- 

 ring to his part of the work have been adopted as far as 

 time permits. And yet Mr. Shields is sent away. We 

 happen to know that it was absolutely necessary for the 

 Board to get rid of Mr. Shields because his successor 

 had already been appointed ! and because, moreover. 

 Colonel Ottley had informed that successor, in the 

 interval between the dates of the correspondence 

 between Sir Wm. Anson and Lord George Hamilton 

 (which was published in the daily papers) and the 

 beginning of the inquiry, that whatever happened his 

 appointment was secure ! The bias of the Board is 

 further shown by their conducting no inquiry into the 

 admittedly excellent electro-technical course taken by 

 Mr. Shields with some of the third year students. 



1 The italics are ours. 



NO. 1641, VOL. 63] 



The defects of the telegraph students are not due to 

 this or that part of the course being capable of slight 

 improvement, for it is cordially admitted that man/ of 

 them are excellent officers. The real reasons are given 

 on pp. 121, 122. The calibre of some of the men during 

 recent years has been exceptionally low, and owing to a 

 variety of circumstances the abler men have not chosen 

 to take telegraph appointments. This year, however, 

 the standard is higher, and unless the break in their 

 work, caused by the extraordinary plan adopted by the 

 India Office of dismissing half the staff in the middle of 

 the session, has too disastrous an effect on the students, 

 they should take a high place in the service. 



So far, therefore, from the indictment being justified 

 that the College must be reformed or abolished, we can 

 confidently assert that very few colleges, if subjected to 

 such a hostile criticism as has been applied to Coopers 

 Hill both by the president and by the Board, could show 

 so clean a record. 



A grave injustice has been done, not only to the seven 

 gentlemen dismissed, but to all those whose services are 

 " for the present " retained and to all who take part in 

 the higher education of the country. The Board of 

 Visitors have dropped their plea of economy because the 

 changes have been shown not to be economical. They 

 have dropped their plea of increased efficiency because 

 it is impossible to maintain that to dismiss a man with 

 Prof. Hearson's reputation and to replace him by a man 

 of the reputation of Dr. Brightmore (who has not hesi- 

 tated to inform the Board that he is unable to maintain 

 discipline in his clas?) makes for efficiency. The Board 

 of Visitors have, in fact, no plea to put forward for the 

 action they have taken. They have relinquished 

 their powers of judgment to a military autocrat who, 

 backed up by other retired officials at the India Office, 

 has absolute power over the destinies of the entire staff 

 at Coopers Hill. Recent events in this country have not 

 increased the faith of the people in the ability of either 

 our public offices or of our army officers. Military 

 methods have been shown to be imperfect and the scien- 

 tific and educated opinion of the country will be slow to 

 recognise the advisability of extending them to such 

 institutions as the Engineering College at Coopers Hill. 



NOTES. 

 As already announced, a meeting of the International Associ- 

 ation of Acadeniies will be opened at Paris on Tuesday n^^xt, 

 April 16, in the rooms of the Institute of France. The following 

 is a list of delegates appointed to represent the various academies 

 which will constitute the Association : — Amsterdam : Prof. 

 H. G. van de Sande Bakhuysen, president of the physico- 

 mathematical section of the Academy ; Prof. H. Kern, president 

 of the section of letters ; Prof. J. de Goeje. Berlin : Prof. 

 H. Diels and Prof. W. Waldeyer, permanent secretaries of the 

 Prussian Royal Academy of Sciences ; Prof. R. Helmert ; Prof. 

 J. H. van 't Hoff; Prof. T. Mommsen ; Prof. E. Sachau. 

 Brussels: Lieut. -General de Tilly ; Prof. P. Fredericq. Buda. 

 pest : Prof. C. Than ; Prof. I. Goldziher. Christiania, not yet 

 announced. Gbttingen : Dr. E. Ehlers and Dr. F. Leo, 

 secretaries of the Society ; Prof. E. Riecke. Copenhagen : Prof. 

 J. L. Heiberg ; General G. Zachariae. Leipzig : Prof. W. His ; 

 Prof. A. Fischer ; Prof. H. Gelzer. London : Sir Michael 

 Foster and Prof. A. W. Rucker, secretaries of the Royal 

 Society; Dr. T. E. Thorpe, foreign secretary of the society;' 

 Sir Norman Lockyer ; Sir Archibald Geikie ; Prof. A. R. 

 Forsyth ; Prof. E. Ray Lankester ; Prof. A. Schuster. Munich 

 Prof. W. Dyck; Prof. F. Lindemann ; Prof. K. Krumbacher. 

 Paris, Academy of Inscriptions and Belles Lettres : Count 

 De Lasteyrie, president ; MM. P. Berger, vice-president ; 



