HERTFORD Tow N, in the hundred of Hertford, in Hertfordshire, is pleasantly situated 21 miles north from London, on the river Lea, which is navigable for barges to the town. The streets are chiefly neat and clean, and the houses well built. It contains two parish churches ; a handsome sessions house, in which the assizes for the coun ty are held ; a market house and town hall, in which arc kept the quarter sessions and county courts ; and a county gaol and penitentiary house, built on Alr Howard's plan. The most important public seminaries for education con sist of the East India College, for the education of youth destined to fill the various offices in the civil departments in India ; and a large school belonging to Christ's Hos pital in London, where about 500 of the younger chil dren are kept prior to their being sent to the metropolis. Hertford returns two members to parliament. The right of election is vested in the inhabitants who do not receive alms ; and in such freemen only as, at the time of their be ing made free, were inhabitants of the borough. Their number is about 700. The only article of consequence manufactured here is malt, by which, and the large quan tities of corn and wool sent down the river to London, the inhabitants are principally supported.
In 673, a synod was held at Hertford, and King Alfred here built a castle, by means of which the Danes, who had come up the Lea from the Thames, were destroyed. On the site of the ancient castle the present one, now the East India College, was erected in the time of Charles 1. The manor of Hertford belonged to the Crown from 1345 till the sixth year of Charles I., when it was granted to Wil liam Earl of Salisbury, whose descendant, the present marquis, is now owner of it. In the 25th year of the reign of Elizabeth, and afterwards, in the 34th and 35th of the same reign, the Michaelmas term was adjourned from London to this town, on account of the plague then raging in the metropolis.
At Haileybury, in the parish of Amwell, in the vicinity of the town of Hertford, and about 19 miles from London, is situated the East India College. This site was chosen
by the directors of the East India Company, when they formed the determination of abandoning the grand and ex tensive plan of a college at Calcutta, sketched out and partly begun by the Marquis of Wellesley, during his ad ministration of India, The object of both institutions is to give a suitable education to those persons who are meant to occupy civil employments under the company in India.
The college near Hertford was instituted in April, 1805, and the foundation stone of the building was laid on the 12th of May, 1806. The beauty of the building, the fine ness of the situation, the salubrity of the air, and the object of the institution, render it an object of considerable in terest. The college is capable of accommodating above 100 students, and rather more than thirty, on an average, are annually sent from it to India. According to the plan of the institution, young men are received when they have completed their 15th year, and they continue at the col lege till they are 18, or till the court of directors shall deem it proper to send them to their respective destinations. A nomination to the college, on the part of the court, is equi valent to an immediate appointment. The students are instructed by courses of lectures, nearly on the plan pur sued at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. The college council, under whose direction and authority the institution is more immediately placed, consists of a prin cipal and several professor s. Besides the general super intendance of the college, it is the duty and office of the principal more especially to watch over the moral and reli gious conduct of the students, to instruct them in the prin ciples of ethics and natural theology, and in the evidences, doctrines, and duties of revealed religion. Besides, he, as well as such of the professors as are in holy orders, preach in the college chapel. The principal is assisted in the su perintendance of the college by the dean, who is annually chosen from among the clerical members of the college council.