Calendar: 1856-1857 Page 39

ANNUAL REPORT APRIL 1856 39 able and experienced Professor of Military Science any Student has ample means of qualifying himself for the scientific branches of Her Majesty's Army The Professorship of Chinese which as was stated in the last Report had been called into active operation gives good promise of fulfilling the purposes for which it was endowed In the course of last year one more member of the Chinese Class wa added by the Earl of Clarendon to the eight Chinese Student Interpreters who had been already recom- mended to his Lordship by the Principal after undergoing an examination in that language During last term four more members of the Class received the promise of similar nomiua- tions from the Foreign Office -their actual appointment being delayed only with the view of ascertaining their order of merit in final examination which is now taking place Thus within the space of two years from the Earl of Clarendon's first communication on the subject no less than thirteen Students of King's College have made sufficient progress in at least the rudiments of most difficult and anomalous language to qualify themselves for taking full advantage of the opportunities which official residence and employment in China will afford The Council have reason to believe that the demand for such Interpreters on the part of the Government is by no means exhausted and that the growing extent of our relations with China will enable the Foreign Office to employ as many qualified men as the College may be able to supply The important consequences which may result to China as well as to this country from large intro- duction of Christian gentlemen into the principal ports and cities of that vast and hitherto exclusive empire are such as whether they are regarded in reference to commerce to poli- tics or to missionary enterprise can hardly be exaggerated The character which the Student Interpreters sent forth from this College have already earned for themselves may be estimated by the fact which the Council record with the utmost satisfaction that the Earl of Clarendon has already promoted two of those who quitted England in the course of last year his Lordship expressing the hope that knowledge