India – John Dickinson, Chairman of the Indian Reform Society fine autograph letter signed dated October 17th 1861 to an unnamed correspondent, 4pp 8vo, thanking him for his compliment on Dickinson’s election as Chairman of the Society: ‘...I believe the course of Indian politics will depend very much on events in America. If the Civil war in that country goes on & our supply of cotton from thence is so seriously diminished or imperilled as to render it indispensible to develop the resources of India (in that staple of our manufactures) then I believe the attention of the English people will be attracted to Indian affairs more than it ever has been hitherto, with the happiest results to its administration – for it is only through the neglect & apathy of the public here that Indian officials are enabled to treat either the Princes or people of India in arbitrary style... I naturally hope therefore that the war in America will go on – at least long enough to destroy our reliance in the supply of slave-grown cotton & I think there is a fair prospect of seeing such a consummation at present