CHAPTER XVI. 

 MACAULAY'S MINUTE ON INDIGO PLANTING. 



THE following minute by Lord Macaulay, dated 

 1837, may be worth preserving : 

 " To say that the ryots of this country are mere 

 children, and ought to be specially protected, is, I 

 conceive, quite incorrect. They are not intellectually 

 inferior to the peasantry of other countries. 



"I am sorry to find that opinions differ widely on the 

 questions submitted by Government, and that they 

 differ most widely on the most important of those 

 questions. That great evils exist, that great injustice 

 is frequently committed, that many ryots have been 

 brought, partly by the operation of the law, and partly 

 by acts committed in defiance of the law, into a state 

 not very far removed from that of partial slavery, is, I 

 fear, too certain. But I see no reason to believe that 

 any of the measures respecting which the Government 

 has consulted planters would, in any material degree,, 

 alleviate these evils. Some of these measures, indeed, 

 are quite unexceptionable, and would, as far as they 

 go, operate beneficially. I would certainly give to 

 the Sudder Amins jurisdiction in civil cases in which 

 Europeans or Americans might be concerned. The 



