It is a primary duty of government to provide for the health, safety, and convenience of the inhabitants of this great town, by establishing a compre hensive system for the improvement of the roads, streets, public drains, and water-courses; and by fixing permanent rules for the construction and distribution of the houses and public edifices, and for the regulation of nuisances of every description. The appearance and beauty of the town are inseparably connected with the health, safety, and conveniency of the inhabitants, and every improvement which shall introduce a greater degree of order, symmetry, and magnificence in the streets, roads, ghauts, and wharfs, public edifices and private habitations, will tend to meliorate the climate, and to secure and promote every object of a just and salutary system of police. These observations are entirely compatible with a due sense of the activity, diligence, and ability of the magistrates of Calcutta, by whose exertions considerable improvements have been made in the general police of the town. The governor-general in council has frequently expressed his approbation of the conduct and services of the present magistrates of Calcutta, who have zealously and judiciously employed every effort within their power to mitigate the effects of the evils described in this minute. But the magistrates of Calcutta must be sensible that the establishment of a more comprehensive system of permanent regulation is indispensably necessary, for the purpose of securing to the town the full benefit of the laudable services of the officers, to whom the administration of the police has been entrusted by government. With these views the governor-general proposes, that the under-mentioned gentlemen be appointed a committee to consider and report to his excellency in council the means of improving the town of Calcutta. Major-general Fraser, Major-general Cameron, Mr. Brooke, Mr. Taylor, Mr. R. C. Birch, Colonel Pringle, Mr. S. Davies, 1 Mr. G. Dowdeswell, superintendant of police, Lieutenant-colonel Harcourt, Captain Shawe, Colonel Garstin, Mr. Tucker, Mr. Fairlie, Mr. Colvin, Mr. Ross, Mr. Alexander, Major Colebrook, Captain Wyatt, Captain Aubury, Captain Preston, Captain Blunt, of Engineers, Captain Sydenham. Messrs. C. F. Martin, W. C. Blaquire, E. Thornton, and A. Maclew, justices of the peace of the tow of Calcutta ; and Mr. R. Blechynden. The governor general proposes that Mr. Teretta be directed to attend the committee and that Captain Blunt of the engineers be appointed to officiate as their secretary. The The governor-general further proposes that the following special instructions be issued to the committee. 1. To take the level of the town of Calcutta and the adjacent country, and ascertain and report what alteration may be necessary in the direction of the publie drains and water-courses. 2. To examine the relative level of the river during the rainy season, compared with the level of the drains and water-courses. 3. To suggest what description of drains and water-courses may be best calcu lated, 1. To prevent the stagnation of rain-water in Calcutta, and the vicinity thereof; and 2. To cleanse the town. 4. To consider and report what establishment may be necessary for cleansing the drains and water-courses, and for keeping them in constant repair. 5. To take into consideration the present state of all places of interment in the vicinity of Calcutta, and to propose an arrangement for the future regulation of those places, in such manner as shall appear to be best calculated for the preservation of the health of the inhabitants of Calcutta and its vicinity. 6. To examine the present state and condition of the bazars, and markets for meat, and of the slaughter-houses in Calcutta; and to propose such rules and orders as shall appear to the committee to be proper for the regulation of those already established, for the removal of such as may have actually become nuisances, and for the establishment of new markets or slaughter-houses hereafter. 7. To enquire into all existing nuisances in the town and vicinity of Calcutta, and to propose the means of removing them. 8. To examine and report for the consideration of government the situations best calculated for opening streets and roads, leading from east to west, from the new circular road to Chowinghee, and to the river; and from north to south, in a direction nearly parallel with the new road. 9. To suggest such other plans and regulations as shall appear to the committee to be calculated to promote the health, convenience, and comfort of the inhabitants of Calcutta; and to improve the appearance of the town and its vicinity. 10. To form and submit to the governor-general in council an estimate of the expense required to complete all such improvements as may be proposed by the committee. The means for raising the necessary funds for the purpose of defraying the expense which must attend the execution of the important improvements suggested in this minute, will claim the early and deliberate consideration of govern ment. The governor-general entertains no doubt that those funds may be raised without subjecting the honourable company to any considerable expense, and without imposing an heavy tax on the inhabitants of Calcutta. It will certainly be the duty of government to contribute, in a just proportion, to any expense which may be requisite for the purpose of completing the improvements of the town. (Signed) WELLESLEY. Fort-William, June 16, 1803. APPENDIX APPENDIX B. MINUTE OF THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL. Fort-William, July 26, 1804. The knowledge hitherto obtained in Europe, respecting certain branches of the natural history of the continent of India, and of the Indian isles is defective. Notwithstanding the progress which has been made within the last twenty years in the prosecution of scientific enquiries connected with the manners, produce, and antiquities of this part of Asia, many of the most common quadrupeds and birds of this country are either altogether unknown to the naturalists of Europe, or have been imperfectly and inaccurately described. The illustration and improvement of that important branch of the natural history of India, which embraces an object so extensive as the description of the principal parts of the animal kingdom, is worthy of the munificence and liberality of the English East India company, and must necessarily prove an acceptable service to the world. To facilitate and promote all enquiries which may be calculated to enlarge the boundaries of general science, is a duty imposed on the British government in India by its present exalted situation; and the discharge of that duty is, in a more especial manner, required from us, when any material addition can be made to the public stock of useful knowledge without involving considerable expense. The governor-general entertains a confident persuasion that, with the facilities which we now possess for the collection of accurate information from every part of India, the natural history of this quarter of the globe may be greatly improved and extended within a comparatively short period of time, without involving the neces sity of any material charge on the public resources; but this desirable object will never be attained, unless it shall be made the duty of some public officer, properly qualified for this service, to collect information, and to digest and publish the result of his researches. Under these considerations the governor-general has had it in contemplation, for some time past, to select a person, conversant in natural history, to be employed in the cultivation of that useful science, in the Asiatic possessions of Great Britain. The knowledge, the learning, and the former habits of Dr. Francis Buchanan have rendered him perfectly competent to the performance of this task, and the governor-general accordingly proposes, that Dr. Buchanan be directed to collect materials for a correct account of all the most remarkable quadrupeds and birds in the provinces subject to the British government in India, and to extend his enquiries as circumstances shall admit, to the other divisions of this great continent, and to the adjacent isles. To facilitate the discharge of this duty, the governor-general has provided an establishment at Baruckpore, where the quadrupeds and birds which may be col lected for Dr. Buchanan, will be kept until they shall have been described and drawn with that degree of attention to minute distinctions, which is essentially necessary for the purpose of the natural historian. The governor-general proposes, that circular orders be transmitted to the principal civil and military officers at every fixed station under this presidency, requiring them to instruct the medical gentlemen, under their authority, to correspond with Dr. Buchanan on this subject, and to reply, with dispatch and accuracy, to Dr. Buchanan's letters; that the principal civil and military officers be further directed to authorize their medical officers to solicit assistance and infor mation from all officers of government under their authority, whether European or native, and that they be required to instruct all persons employed in the service -of government to afford to their medical officers the necessary assistance in pro curing curing such animals as may be required, to communicate the most accurate information which can be obtained from the most intelligent persons in the vicinity respecting their natural history, and to furnish such aid as may be necessary for the conveyance of the animals to the presidency. The governor-general proposes, that the right honourable the governor in council of Fort St. George, the honourable the governor in council of Bombay, and his excellency the governor of the British possessions on the island of Ceylon, and the lieutenant-governor of Prince of Wales's Island, be requested to direct the proper officers, under those governments respectively, to correspond with Dr. Buchanan, and to afford every practicable assistance to Dr. Buchanan, in the prosecution of his researches within the limits of their local authority, and that similar orders be sent to Malacca and to Bencoolen. With the view of facilitating Dr. Buchanan's correspondence, it will be necessary that the post master-general should be ordered to receive and to forward, free from postage, all letters written by or addressed to Dr. Buchanan, on the subject of his researches in the department of natural history, and that the governments of Fort St. George, Bombay, and Ceylon, be requested to issue similar orders to the post-master-general at those settlements respectively. All letters written by, or addressed to, Dr. Buchanan, on matters connected with the duty now committed to him, must be superscribed on the envelope, with the name of the writer, and with the words "Natural History of India." The following monthly establishment will be required to enable Dr. Buchanan to perform the duty now assigned to him. For the support of the establishment necessary for the quadrupeds, and birds at Baruckpore, For a painter, For a writer, Stationary and colours, Sic. Rup. Expense of collecting wild animals and birds, Total per mensem, Sic. Rup. 1000, or 1251. In proposing the appropriation of the monthly sum of 1,000 rupees, for the purposes described in this minute, it is the intention of the governor-general, to limit, within the amount of 12,000 rupees per annum, the whole of the ordinary expenditure to be incurred in the prosecution of the important objects in his excellency's contemplation. Some contingent disbursemments may occasionally be required for the construction of buildings for the quadrupeds and birds. The amount, however, will be inconsiderable. It is proposed, at the same time, to authorize Dr. Buchanan to disburse this sum, (or such inferior sum as may be required) in such manner as shall appear to Dr. Buchanan to be best calculated to promote t e the purposes of his appointment, and that he should be directed, at the expiration of every six months, to submit to the governor-general in council in the public department, a detailed account of his actual expenditure, with a report of the progress which may have been made in the course of the preceding six months, in forming a collection of rare, beautiful, or singular birds at Baruckpore. In the month of June, 1800, a collection of birds and quadrupeds was commenced at Garden-Reach, for the service of the proposed institution which it was intended at the time to have annexed to the college of Fort William. The expense incurred for these animals since they were transferred to Baruckpore is sic. rup. 2,791,8,6, or 3491.; The amount of this charge will of course be advanced from the general treasury. The governor-general proposes that the observations of Dr. Buchanan on such subjects of the natural history of animals as may be collected, together with the drawings of each subject, be transmitted once in each season to the honourable the court of directors, with a request to the honourable court to direct the publication of the work, in such a manner as they may deem most proper. (Signed) WELLESLEY. APPENDIX C. MINUTE OF THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL. Fort-William, June 1, 1805. UPON the first improvement of the grounds at Baruckpore, it was in the contemplation of the governor-general to combine with the arrangements then adopted at his recommendation, the establishment of an institution calculated to effect the gradual improvement of the agriculture of India, and to meliorate the general condition of our native subjects in these extensive and populous provinces. To a cursory observer, the extensive and highly-cultivated plains which are to be seen in every part of Bengal, suggest an opinion, that the utmost abuadance every where prevails, and that nothing remains to be accomplished to assist the fertility of the soil, or to augment the comforts of the people. On a more accurate investigation, however, it will be found that the great mass of the people who are employed in agriculture (and especially the day-labourers) are in a state of comparative indigence. The poverty of the lower classes of our native subjects must in some measure be ascribed to the improvident policy of the landholders, in generally renting their lands on short leases at the highest rent which can be obtained, and to the long established practice amongst the Hindoos of every description, of lavishing all the weath which they can amass in expensive religious ceremonies, at the marriages of their children, and for the maintenance and support of religious mendicants, and other idle retainers. It is however an unquestionable fact, that the produce of the soil is infinitely below what it is capable of yielding under proper management, and that the resources and comforts of the people might be much improved, if they were instructed in the best means of converting its natural fertility to the utmost advantage. Under the present system of Indian agriculture, with the advantage of a soil of uncommon fertility, and of a climate which yields a crop of some description at every season, the industry of a single ploughman, however exerted, is insufficient to enable him to cultivate a greater extent of land within the year than seven acres, and the expense of separating the rice from the husk for culinary purposes, after the grain is reaped, cannot be estimated at a sum inferior to one-fifth part of the value of the grain; whilst a similar operation can be performed in England, and in other European countries, at an expense not exceeding one-fortieth part of the value of the crop. Similar defects pervade every branch of Indian agriculture, and in no instances are their injurous consequences more manifestly exemplified, than in the general state of the cattle employed in the labours of the field within these provinces. A breed of strong and powerful black cattle is to be found in very few situations producing good pasture throughout the year; but the weak and inefficient condition of the cattle generally employed for agricultural and other purposes, as well in Bengal as in the upper provinces, cannot have escaped the notice of the most inattentive observer. The advantages which would accrue from an improvement of the breed of cattle are great and important; but this desirable object can only be accom➡ plished by the introduction of a more perfect system of husbandry, where the skilful application of art shall be employed to provide suitable nouristanele for the cattle at those seasons when the pasturage is almost universalty destroyed by the parching heat of the sun. |