| Description | He is sending his father the Gazette of India on weights and measures [not present]. Between Strachey and Minchin the scales are now with the kilogram. William thinks that unless they can propose a decimal scheme based upon the geometrical inch, and an English metrical system, there will be a slow favour towards the French system. Archdeacon [John] Pratt is staying at the moment, and William relates that he was asked to sit in the Weights and Measures Committee but declined as not being acquainted with the practical side of the matter. Pratt would have been in favour of a decimal system and against the kilogram. He asks if William's father would not compound him with Dr Pratt, as he did in a past paper. Brenward [?] the mathematical master at Dacca College said after dinner that he owed his bent of mind to Sir John's 'Natural Philosophy', and Pratt similarly complimented the articles on light and sound. Alex's [Alexander Stewart Herschel's] arrangement for exhibiting the polarization of coronal light is 'very pretty' and he has passed this on to Johnny [John Herschel]. William relates Pratt's theory on local attraction which he thinks will be proved by means of the pendulum experiments being conducted worldwide. Pratt considers the crust of the Earth to be rigid for such a problem as this. He gives an impromptu limerick from Emma on Pratt's ideas. Pratt had not heard of the geometrical inch and was interested; William asks if he may be sent copies of his father's pamphlet on the subject. He is glad that the French are to issue a 25 franc coin, the 'Empereur', to be the weight of three English sovereigns. He discusses the introduction of the English sovereign in India as legal tender. He does not suppose that the French Government will do as badly with the average market value of the Empereur and he will be interested to see how it works. They are living very quietly at Dacca and William has had his first Sessions trials by jury, finding them not less trustworthy than the average of the judicial officers. He has not forgiven the Judicial Department for the effect on his mind of his early experiences. He discusses his own decisions and general satisfaction with judicial system, since general complaints of corruption have been mostly removed. He considers that Indian judges are free from corruption, but have little understanding of the importance of evidence. He enters into detail about reliance on witnesses and the problems of truth-telling it raises. William considers himself untrained in civil law, but teaching his courts on seeking positive evidence does not require special knowledge of Hindu or Islamic law, he believes, although he is studying both. Emma is trying to grow English acorns and he asks how the Scarlet oak acorn is growing. William concludes by sketching the 'prettiest form in which to shew the wheel paradox'. |