| Description | Letters have been like balm for the past four months, William writes, and he is drawn towards home, hoping to visit in Spring 1863. Fancy's [Francisca Herschel's] letter was a surprise, her hand just like Bella's [Isabella Herschel's]. He wonders how they will have changed. He describes the recent events with indigo planters, who have influenced the Supreme Government to half interfere, and it is sad to see 'sheer force of howling' prevail. He sends in a packet the statements led by Larmour and relates how a special commissioner, Montresor, was appointed by [John Peter] Grant. It exposed 'a quantity of brazen faced falsehoods on Larmour's part', made on behalf of the Bengal Indigo Company and not supported by planters in William's district. Grant has also appointed another commissioner, Morris, for Jessore, who reported more favourably to the planters. The public is at a loss about what to make of these two reports, but William explains how he can reconcile them. He mentions ryotts being shot down at Sindooree. In Kooshtea [Kushtia] Indians were being threatened with imprisonment if they did not take advances to plant indigo and the courts would not listen to them. They were being charged with illegal assembly, scores at a time, and jailed. William describes other threatening tactics, saying that the ryotts of Jessore and Kushtia are 'wild with anger and how any planter survives is a marvel to me'. He comments on what is right and wrong in Morris's report; Morris was followed by a train of planters from factory to factory and stayed in planters' houses. Montresor kept his own independent camp and saw no-one except on business. Morris failed to look at papers and accounts and therefore did not discover the tainted nature of the evidence, refusing to even consider any doubt. Montresor has demonstrated that the zamindar accounts put forward by the planters are utterly untrustworthy, and William gives an account of court cases where questionable agreements were used in evidence. Forgeries were subsequently exposed and some parties sent for trial. The planters have threatened to renew a prosecution for libel against the government, even after Palmerston had repeated the charges. He notes the planters stating that none of William's court decisions had stood the test of appeal, whereas all had been approved by the highest court of appeal in Bengal. William refers to a former case he described, of a plaintiff being put in chains by the railway company which was not proved; a thief was recently caught and by mistake was sent to the police in manacles, and an inquiry found a numbered set of English manacles in the storeroom of the railway company. William understands he is now godfather to two nieces, which he accepts. He asks if Alick [Alexander Stewart Herschel] said that Uncle James has seen through William's election to the Athenaeum, and he should settle with his uncle. In a postscript he thanks Maria [Maria Sophia Herschel] for the picture of Constance. |