142 COTTON TN THE MADEAS PRESIDENCY. [CHAP. T. 



been raised in those districts, both recently, and also 

 in former years by the late Mr. Hughes. Under such 

 Para 33 circumstances, he was convinced 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 re- 

 moved from the locality where he had been 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 culti- 

 vated, 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, I know not ; 

 but I believe very little." In another letter, referring 



Para 196 ^° -^ mn ^ e ' s sam ple of Tinnevelly Cot- 

 ton already noticed, Dr. Wight severely 

 commented on Mr. Finnie' s inconsistency. It seems 

 Dr. Wight's ^ na ^ 011 * ne ^th of May, 1848, Mr. Finnie 

 5farT'i848 ^ a< ^ consu ^ed Dr. Wight officially, as to 

 Pari/RetuVn what measures he should adopt to overcome 

 (1857), p. 293. the obstinacy of Native dealers in with- 

 holding their Cotton at reasonable prices ; whilst on 

 the 24th of the same month, only twenty days after- 

 wards, he stated that he had nearly a whole village 

 engaged in producing Cotton of a very superior quality, 

 and pledged himself to have ultimately the whole crop 

 of Tinnevelly cleaned according to his particular pat- 

 tern. 



212 Points of the dispute : summary of the correspond- 

 ence. — The rupture between Dr. Wight and Mr. 

 Finnie began about the time of the change of Go- 

 vernors. Sir Henry Pottinger the new Governor, 

 Sir Henry however, declined to take any notice of 

 Pottiuger's Mr. Finnie's sentiments or of Dr. Wight's 

 Myfis^ 5 * 11 criticisms ; and of course within a few 

 Pari.' Return months the correspondence between the 

 (1857), p. 296. ^ wo g rew warmer an( j m ore lengthy than 



ever. The points in the controversy will now be 

 exhibited in the briefest possible form ; just sufficient 

 to illustrate the stage at which the Cotton experiment 

 had arrived in the season of 1848-49. 



