need, we think, be added for it is
now dismantled except that it was in truth the training ground for the
artificer gang under that able officer, who saw the absolute necessity
of having some large public work in hand in order to the convicts
acquiring a knowledge of the various trades. This principle in the
management of convicts was advocated by Sir Edmund Du Cane in one of his
pamphlets, in which he judiciously says that "the best system devised
for the employment of convicts is that of executing large public works
by means of their labour."

[Illustration: CATHEDRAL, SINGAPORE.

_Koch._

_Plate XVI._]

As the late General Man had for this purpose the erection of the
permanent jail, so the late Colonel Macpherson planned and laid the
foundations for execution by their labour of St. Andrew's Church, now
the cathedral of the diocese; while to Major McNair fell the duty of
designing and constructing almost wholly by these convicts the house for
the Governor of the colony.

CATHEDRAL[10] (see Plate XVI.).

In preparing the designs of this ecclesiastical edifice, Colonel
Macpherson had to select as simple and easy a form of architecture as he
could, and with as little ornament as possible, and therefore within the
capacity of his workpeople; so he chose the Gothic, or rather, we should
say, the Early English style of about the 12th century, and in so doing
he said he had somewhat reproduced the character of old Netley
Abbey.[11] He laid the foundations, and saw it built up to about three
feet above the ground, and then left for Malacca to take up the
appointment of Chief Civil Officer there, and was therefore not able
further to see the progress of the work that he had inspired. His plans,
however, were carefully followed by his successor, with the exception,
as has already been said, of substituting a spire for a tower, owing to
undue settlement at the tower end. This building is 250 feet long
internally, by 65 feet in width, with nave and side aisles; or, with the
north and south transepts, 95 feet, the transepts being used as
porticoes. The simple columns, with plain mouldings only, carried
arches, on which rested the side walls of the nave, which were run up of
sufficient height to clear the roofs of the aisles, and were perforated
by a range of windows to admit light to the whole building. At the
north-east end of the nave was a great arch leading into a chancel, and
an apse with three lancet windows in sta