obtain Government sanction—his only condition being that the work should be carried out under my general supervision without any interference on the part of the D. P. W. whose bridges in this neighbourhood, notwithstanding their great cost, have been any thing but successful; three have been swept away during the last two years, one of them only a few months after it was finished.
"As the Munshi himself will be the only loser, if the bridge is a failure, while in case of success the boon to the public will be very great, I should have submitted the proposal formally through the Commissioner in the certain expectation that it would be brought favourably to the notice of Government, had I not been already warned by past experience—as I will proceed to explain. On the actual boundary line of the Bulandshahr and Aligarh districts, the Oudh and Rohilkhand Railway has a station called Atrauli Road, which is absolutely useless for want of any approach to it. The Aligarh and Anupshahr high road runs at a distance of a few miles from it, but the branch connecting it with the station is absolutely impassable even for the very roughest wheeled vehicle. The inconvenience being so great, Raja Bákir Ali Khán of Pindrawal, a village half way between the station and the high road, with an amount of public spirit that I thought did him great credit, volunteered to metal the entire length at his own expense and to keep it permanently in repair. Unless the circumstances have already come to your knowledge, I think you will scarcely believe that the offer, which I duly represented to the Commissioner, was treated with an utter want of courtesy and was finally after much delay unceremoniously refused, simply because the Raja wished to carry out the work himself and not through the agency of the Public Works.
"Warned by this experience, and not wishing to subject Mihrbán Ali to a similar rebuff, I write thus informally to you in the first instance, in the hope that you will be kind enough to mention the matter to His Honour and secure his general approval, before further steps are taken.
"The example once set, I fancy it will find at least one imitator; for about a year ago, Sir Faiz Ali Khán sounded me about building a bridge over the same river near Pahású-which would also be a great public benefit—but I had been too much annoyed by the Atrauli Road affair which was then fresh in my mind, to give him much encouragement."
