The formation of a regimental school was an object of much interest with Colonel Pearse; as early as 1770 some orders were issued on the subject; but we learn from subsequent orders, in 1778, that these had “for various causes been neglected and forgotten, but that the commanding officer now resolves to carry them into execution;” and accordingly, rules are laid down for conducting the school duties,—the amount each man is to pay for being taught, what stoppages are to be carried to the school fund, and, finally, that any deficiency is to be borne, half by the commanding officer, and half by the captains. Again, in the year 1787, “Colonel Pearse, having the welfare of his soldiers at heart, and being desirous to do for their benefit any thing that lies in his power, has thought proper to establish a school for their instruction; that, by teaching them to read, he may enable them to learn their duty as Christians from books of their religion, and as soldiers, from the orders and regulations laid down for their guidance. It is his intention to visit it from time to time, and by his authority, to make it seriously a matter of attention.” Then follow some rules for the school, and as an encouragement to the non-commissioned officers to qualify themselves, he directs that every “serjeant employing a man to write and read for him shall pay him 6 rupees a month, or to write for him, 4 rupees a month, and he shall not read on parade, or be excused his duties.” The number allowed to attend the school from each company was limited, and the order has remained so nominally till late years, although, in reality, none wishing for instruction have been refused; but of late years the recruits for the regiment have been from a better class, and a very large proportion are able to read and write when they join the regiment. This may be partly caused by the more general diffusion of education in all classes, or from the crowded state of all lines in England, impelling a class to enlist who formerly found occupation in other professions.
As another instance of the interest which Colonel Pearse took in the welfare of his corps may be quoted the following order; it shews, too, how just were his views on questions of duty and discipline: “The rules of duty, as laid down, may seem extremely rigorous to those who do not properly consider the consequence; Colonel Pearse hopes that there are not any; but lest there should be, he desires that they will carefully remember that military discipline can only be really made easy by being enforced with precision in every part, however minute it may appear; that strictness with mildness will make the soldiers love their officers as their parents, and create in their minds a desire to be highest in esteem, and an emulation to deserve the preference, and the fear of losing it; then it will habituate the officers to regard the soldiers as the object of their attention, and lead them to watch over their morals with that pleasing anxiety which naturally arises from the desire to produce superior excellence in those who are immediately under them; and lastly, that in the corps in which these principles are most conspicuous, courts-martial and punishments are very rare; the lash is only heard when it falls on the really worthless and abandoned, whom the rest shun and detest for having brought disgrace upon them, and who are, of course, discharged soon after.”
Vaccination had not at this time been introduced, but, to lessen the danger from small-pox, inoculation on a large scale appears to have been first tried on Europeans in India this year. In February, 1787, 1 officer, 20 artillery, 26 infantry, and 53 children of artillerymen and lascars, were admitted into the artillery hospital at Dum-Dum, and inoculated; the party were left under the charge of Captain Rattray when the regiment marched into Fort William, and a report of the result was published in orders in April, from which it appeared that 90 took the infection and recovered; of the remainder who did not take it, some had been previously inoculated in England, but without such effect as to induce the supposition that they had had the small-pox; from the result above detailed, there is, however, little doubt but that they must have taken it.
In September, a general order having been issued directing the companies of artillery to be numbered in the different battalions, Colonel Pearse searched into the records of the corps as far back as 1770, at which time only 5 companies existed, and ascertained the exact seniority of each company; he laid a plan before Lord Cornwallis, which was approved of and published. Hitherto, the companies had stood on the returns agreeably to the seniority of their captains, or the order for field duty; this led to constant changes, for on the promotion, for instance, of a captain to a majority, his company would be given to the captain just promoted, and the company would be moved from the first to the last in the battalion. In the accompanying tabular arrangement these successive changes could not all be shewn, though it is believed that it will be found essentially correct; however, from this period there can be no doubt of the identity of the different portions of the regiment, and for the valuable materials from which it has been arranged, the author is indebted to Lieutenant-Colonel Tennant, for many years assistant adjutant-general of artillery, and at a time when documents, which have since crumbled away, were accessible.
In March, 1789, Lord Cornwallis attended at Dum-Dum, to witness the results of some experiments carried on by Lieutenant Hill, with a view to insure the ignition of the powder in a shell on the moment of its touching the ground; the success seems to have been complete, for “Lord Cornwallis has been pleased to desire Colonel Pearse to communicate to Lieutenant Hill, that his lordship has received the utmost satisfaction from the experiments this day carried on before him, and from the successful endeavours of Lieutenant Hill to fire the powder within shells the instant they touch the ground. Colonel Pearse adds his own hearty congratulations on this success, and feels the utmost pleasure that what has so long been sought for by artillerists, has at length been discovered by an officer of the Bengal Artillery under his command.”
Lieutenant Hill’s plan, from an incidental notice in the third number of the East-India Military Repository, seems to have been the same as that of an Englishman named W. Wilton, which was tried at Woolwich in 1784. The wood of a common fusee is partly cut away to about half its thickness on both sides, and the space filled up by two small wedges of brass; a washer of leather being placed under them, a hole is drilled through them and the fusee, a brass or copper wire is inserted, and riveted firmly on both sides. The wire, when heated, becomes as brittle as glass, and the shock of the shell touching the ground breaks it off; the little wedges fall into the shell, and the fire finds two lateral vents into the powder. “A fusee similar to Mr. Wilton’s (East-India Military Repository), with the leaden pins (four small ones to give additional security to the brass wedges), was produced by the conductor of the Expense Magazine, amongst several other kinds said to have been invented by the late Colonel Hill, of the Bengal Artillery. These specimens are now in the model-room at Dum-Dum, but we have never seen any invention for the purpose more simple or more perfect than Mr. Wilton’s fusee.” Of eight shells fired with the fusees at Woolwich, in 1784, six ignited at the moment of the shell touching the ground.
At the beginning of this month a fire broke out in the Arsenal, at night, consuming the workshops, and all they contained, “except a number of carriages of different kinds, which, by the unparalleled efforts of the officers and soldiers, were preserved from the flames.” Colonel Pearse was present, and his presence stimulated their exertions to the utmost, but there is reason to believe that his own end was hastened by the exposure to this night, under the influence of mercury, as we find was the case from his own correspondence. Early in April he gave over the command of the garrison to the next senior officer, and proceeded down the river for a change of air, in the hope of restoring himself to health, but without the desired effect, and on the 15th June he ended his life; a garrison order by the Governor-General thus announces it:—
“It is with the utmost concern that Earl Cornwallis has occasion to prepare the mournful duties of a last tribute of military honour to the remains of Colonel Pearse, in whose demise the army has lost a zealous and most respectable officer.
“On the corpse being brought into garrison the colours are to be lowered half-staff, and to remain so until the corpse is interred.