INDIGO. 



57 



tical reasons. We think the manufacture would Letter to 



Bengal, 



be more secure in them, and therefore the steadi- 28 Aug. isoo, 

 ness of the trade with Europe, if once established, 

 less likely to be affected, than if part of the supply 

 depended on countries greatly removed from the 

 sea coast, and more liable to convulsions and dis- 

 orders, and to other evils flowing from arbitrary 

 government. 



30. We say this on the supposition that the 

 produce of our own territories, and of those de- 

 pendent on us, were alike fit for this market ; but 

 if the produce of Oude, for instance, were more fit, 

 and therefore more likely to obtain that prevalence 

 over rivals which would give the supply of the 

 British market to India, we should have no hesi- 

 tation, in this case, to encourage in preference the 

 indigo of Oude, and leave it to Bengal to arrive 

 at equal goodness of quality, and thereby equal 

 support. But we find the fact to be directly the 

 reverse. It is acknowledged that the quality of 

 the Oude indigo is generally inferior, and not cal- 

 culated for effecting the great object of giving 

 Asiatic indigo the possession of this market, nor 

 likely to become so, because much of it is manu- 

 factured in the slovenly imperfect manner of the 

 natives, which also will prevent it from becoming 

 a formidable article in the hands of foreigners, if 

 it could find its way in any great quantity to the 

 western ports of India, a thing improbable, be- 

 cause the trade seems greatly to owe its existence 



to 



