| Description | They are hearing the news of his father's parting with Melie [Amelia Wade, née Herschel] and that Tom [Thomas Francis Wade] has opted to return [to China] via the Panama route in a series of steamship journeys. William contrasts travel by rail and ship, noting the changes in India owing to transportation. He gives the example of one Kistochnadra Gupta, whose parents mortgaged everything to send him to England to prepare for the Civil Service, the voyage being of no account compared to the journey from Calcutta to Dacca until recently. The railway makes all the difference and when William first came out there was not a rail in working order. He notes his father's opinions on government's role in peace and justice and its impact on the future. William has a new paper, the 'Statistical Reporter', on all important aspects of social and political life in India. He is using every bit of time in working on the law and he discusses working practices. He is getting on well with his bar, and he thinks that if they should have to leave in February, the courts will have benefitted from his executive instinct. He finds that the bar has ben in the habit of arguing and pleading on instinct of right and wrong, rather than the written rule of thelaw which is where William tries to lead them. He comments on the note-keeping of Bengali judges, and languages which dispense with the nominative and accusative, and this results in vagueness. He discourses on the impact of this, and how it is corrected, by having the pleaders themselves draft text, rather than attorneys and low solicitors. Bengali is now very different in print than it was when William first arrived in India, being more European in style. This is not to be wondered at, as he and Emma hear college boys habitually speaking English. He encloses an example of the style [HSF/3/17/8]. William notes Keshab Chandra's [Keshub Chandra Sen's] 'attempts at a universal religion' and his visit to England. He gives his opinions of Keshub, and religious choice in Bengal, stating that he believes Keshub is 'not quite free from the symptoms of political ambition', and that Bengalis believe that he might be the ruler of India. Bishop [Robert] Milman was staying recently and William was astonished to hear him lecture in favour of the Brahman religion. The two religious leaders were in agreement on its acceptance on the grounds of its power in the state. The last mail was lost in the Red Sea, and he thinks it may have included a letter of his mother's, as he has received a pamphlet from her. |