Another of the changes which resulted from the incorporation of the ordnance service with the army was the removal of the head-quarters from Woolwich to Chatham. Successive Directors of the establishment at Chatham had shown the benefits probably to accrue to the corps by the measure, but forty years’ representation were insufficient to dispose of the counter-advantages which were considered to be the effect of instruction carried out at two stations—one for forming the soldier, the other for working up the soldier into a sapper. At a time when the country was expecting changes, and those changes promised a return to the State more beneficial than an adherence to old systems was likely to yield, nothing was permitted to stand in the way of making the trial. Accordingly the fiat was issued by Lord Panmure; and Chatham from the 10th January became the head-quarters of the corps. On that day, Lieutenant-Colonel Yorke, Assistant Adjutant-General, marched into Brompton Barracks at the head of the sappers, leaving for the works at Woolwich a strong company quartered in temporary huts erected in Mill Hill road. A detachment had been sent to Van Diemen’s Land in 1852 at the request of the Colonial Legislature to carry on the surveys of the settlement, but it had barely entered on its duties when a feeling of hostility was shown to its employment. Whenever a chance offered of presenting it in an unfavourable aspect, the Legislative Council greedily accepted it, and gave the imperial party the full weight of its opposition. In August, 1855, the Governor-General sent a message to the Council recommending Captain Hawkins who commanded the surveyors, for the appointment of Surveyor-General, but between a select committee nominated to inquire into its necessity and the Legislative Council, the office was never conferred. Matters went on coldly enough; the Council had grown stubborn in its sentiments; and to show that the colony had a will of its own, notwithstanding a royal warrant had been issued to form the detachment in accordance with the warm wishes of those who had authority to represent the wants of the province, the colonial secretary coolly intimated to Captain Hawkins, on the 16th October following, that himself and detachment were at the disposal of the Governor of New South Wales! The men composing the party were volunteers, had made sacrifices to emigrate, had purchased land in the vicinity of their labours, and were collecting about them members of their families, who, by ones and twos, had struggled to leave their English homes and were on their way to distant Tasmania. In revoking the service, the conduct of the rulers was as heartless and supercilious as absolute; and in beguiling men, by fair promises, to volunteer to serve them; then discountenancing their efficient exertions, and finally, without consulting their wishes, arranging for their transfer to any colony which might be in need of