May 24, 1863.

Dear Simkins,–You gentlemen of England who stay at home in ease and a temperature of 45°, how little do you appreciate the full weight of the words, “contract law.” You may have heard some bilious old gentleman in the warm corner of a railway-carriage descanting on the increased necessity for a contract law in India, with a vehemence and acrimony which appeared to you excessive and uncalled for. Perhaps at the time you imagined that some personal motive induced him to advocate a more stringent act of breach of promise, in order to bind those young ladies who come out to Calcutta under the express understanding that they are to marry one man, but with the secret intention of marrying another. To us, however, who live and move in the valley of the shadow of the Development of the Resources of India, these baleful syllables have a far other significance. When the passions of men are stirred and their interests at stake, they are seldom long about finding a subject on which to quarrel. The Anglo-Saxon party, who consider it essentially English to oppress the native, and the Anglo-Indian party, who consider it essentially English to protect him, have discovered a most convenient battleground in the question of a criminal contract law. The matter in dispute may be summed up in a few words.