1849 52.] DR. WIGHT'S FINAL COTTON REPORT. 199 



Authority for the purchases refused by the Ma- CHAP. 

 dras Government. It is scarcely necessary to add that V ' 

 the authority for the purchases was refused by Sir Henry 26 1 

 Pottinger's Government. It was decided that the instruc- Minuteg of 

 tions of the Court of Directors did not authorise the Govern- 



ment to sanction any such engagement ; that it was the duty IsS. 



of the Manchester manufacturers to send their own agents ment l8t 



June 1852. 



to the Cotton growing districts, to make their own bargains 



with the cultivators. If the rate proposed was a fair one, it p> 333>234> 

 ought to be offered by the merchants ; but as it was, the 

 proposition seemed to be in reality a suggestion that the 

 Government should purchase Cotton at any price, and then 

 sell it to the manufacturers of Manchester at such a rate as 

 was best suited to their trading purposes. 



Completion of Dr. Wight's Report, May, 1852.- 262 



About this time Dr. Wight appears to have completed the 

 final report which he had been called upon to draw up by Dr. wight's 

 the Court of Directors. The Report is a long one, but the dated ' I2th 

 following summary contains the whole of the facts and opi- fjJ 

 nions set forth in the original document. This was deemed pt 235 * 

 peculiarly necessary here ; for though much that is stated 

 has already appeared in former paragraphs, it will be con- 

 venient for the reader to have the whole of Dr. Wight's 

 matured results at one view. It will be remarked that 

 nothing is said of the results of the season of 1849-50 

 when the irrigation experiment was tried ; and indeed there 

 is reason to believe that the experiment proved a failure in 

 Coimbatore. 



DR. WIGHT'S FINAL REPORT, 12-TH MAY 1852. 



Stage of the Cotton experiment in 1849.~The 263 

 following report has been delayed in order to enable me to 

 exhibit the very important changes, which have taken place 

 during the last three years, and which are going on, I trust, 



