1847 49.] DISCUSSIONS OF DR. WIGHT AND Mil. FINNIE. 159 



adding however, that he should have considered the judg- CHAP. 

 ment of no importance, had he not discovered that Dr. Royle _ '. 

 had adopted a similar view ; and had not Mr. Finnie fallen 

 into the same error, and actually stated in a note, that " he 

 believed he might almost undertake to eat all the American 



O 



Cotton that would be produced at Aroopoocottah." Ac- Mr. Fin- 



nie's letter, 



cordingly, about three weeks afterwards, Mr. Finnie com- Jjjth N v - 

 plained to the Madras Government, that Dr. Wight had JgSjJ^g. 

 accused the American Planters of forming a " conspiracy," 

 for the purpose of discouraging the British public from per- 

 severing in the cultivation of American Cotton. The Madras 

 Government however, stated in reply that no such commu- 

 nication had been received from Dr. Wight. Meantime, Mr. 

 Finnie seems to have flavoured his official correspondence 

 with frequent sneers at Dr. Wight's proceedings ; and on one 

 occasion, in an official application to Dr. Wight for some Dr.wiht's 



' 



American seed, he stated that he was " more and more con- 



Par). Re- 



vinced of the folly of trying to make this country (India) p U1 i n 81 (1857) 

 produce American Cotton." In reporting this statement to 

 Government, Dr. Wight pointed out that it involved a grave 

 error. If the expression referred to India generally, it was 

 altogether incorrect ; and if it were even limited to Tinne- 

 velly and Madura, still it was contradicted by the fact that 

 good field grown American Cotton had been raised in those 

 districts, both recently, and also in former years by the late 

 Mr. Hughes. Under such circumstances, he was convinced para 33. 

 that Mr. Finnie had never given the experiment a fair trial, 

 and that he never intended doing so ; and he therefore 

 recommended that Mr. Finnie should be removed from the 

 locality where hehadbeen stationed. " In thirty two months," 

 said Dr. Wight, " he has cost the experiment about 20,000 

 Rupees, and has not grown one bale of American Cotton, or 

 himself cultivated, or taken continuous charge of, a single 

 field. What he has done in the ginning department towards 

 aiding in making up the Court's order, 1 know not ; but I 



