220 JAMES CLERK MAXWELL. [CHAP. VII. 



elected an associate last Wednesday. . . . We had a dis- 

 cussioD and an essay by Pomeroy last Saturday about the 

 position of the British nation in India, and sought through 

 ancient and modern history for instances of such a relation 

 between two nations, but found none. We seem to be in 

 the position of having undertaken the management of India 

 at the most critical period, when all the old institutions and 

 religions must break up, and yet it is by no means plain 

 how new civilisation and self-government among people so 

 different from us is to be introduced. One thing is clear, that 

 if we neglect them, or turn them adrift again, or simply 

 make moDey of them, then we must look to Spain and the 

 Americans for our examples of wicked management and 

 consequent ruin. 



FROM HIS FATHER. 



llth November 1855. 



The platometer will require much consideration, both by 

 you and by any one that undertakes the making. You need 

 hardly expect the details all rightly planned at the first ; 

 many defects will occur, and new devices contrived to con- 

 quer unforeseen difficulties in the execution. I would suspect 

 10 would not go far to get it into anything like good 

 working order. If the instrument were made, to whom is it 

 to belong ? And if it succeeds well, for whose profit is all 

 to be contrived? Does Bryson so understand it as to be 

 able to make it ? Could he estimate the cost, or would he 

 contract to get an instrument up ? Fixing on a suitable 

 size is very important. 



To HIS FATHER. 



Trin. Coll., 12th November 1855. 



I attended Willis on Mechanism to-day, and I think I 

 will attend his course, which is about the parts of machinery. 

 I was lecturing about the velocity of water escaping from a 

 hole this morning. There was a great noise outside, and we 

 looked out at a magnificent jet from a pipe which had gone 

 wrong in the court. So that I was saved the trouble of 

 making experiments. 



