PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION. 291 



fidential circular to the heads of departments and governors, in 

 which they asked whether it was wholly or partially true, not 

 that 40,000,000, but that the greater proportion of the population 

 of India suffered from an insufficiency of food ; and they directed 

 that men of ' experience and judgment^ should be set to make the 

 inquiries. The replies were contained in five confidential Blue- 

 books. In the district of Rampoor twelve scattered villages were 

 taken, with a total population of 2,000. Of these, 1,600 were cul- 

 tivators, and the remaining 400 were laborers, artisans, etc. It 

 was found that, after deducting rent and the cost of cultiva- 

 tion, the cultivators had available for their support during the 

 year sixteen rupees each, while the laborers had seventeen shil- 

 lings a year each as the whole means of their subsistence. In an- 

 other case it was shown that in a district having a population of 

 over 1,000,000 souls, 173 persons had only thirteen shilliDgs a year 

 each to live upon. In another district the official reports which 

 were contained in Blue-books marked ' confidential ' showed that 

 in a large district nearly all the inhabitants had to live upon from 

 three eighths to three quarters of the amount of grain which was 

 ascertained to be the minimum that would support a healthy con- 

 dition of life." 



In the debate that ensued, Sir Richard Temple, another ex-offi- 

 cial of India, stated that " the calculations referred to by Mr. Keay 

 were not worth the paper they were written on or the breath with 

 which they were uttered. The data upon which they were founded 

 were supposititious, and the deductions drawn from them were 

 impossible. If they were true, the people of India would not be 

 living at all, and the land would be of no market value. Yet, in 

 another breath they were told that large sums of money were 

 being advanced by local banks on security of the land." 



Mr. Keay said that the facts and figures were quoted from the 

 Blue-book. 



Sir R. Temple retorted that "the facts were no facts at all. 

 The tabular statements were merely tabular statements of partic- 

 ular theories of particular calculators. They were, in fact, delu- 

 sions and snares. He preferred to take certain general facts which 

 could be tested. He could not know or test how a particular 

 family in India lived. He did, however, know the area of land 

 under cultivation, the population of the country, the ratio of the 

 increase in the population, the expansion of trade, and, above all, 

 the exportation of foodstuffs. Honorable members told them that 

 the people of India were starving, yet India exported food and 

 grain stuffs to such an extent as to threaten disturbance to the 

 markets of Europe, and particularly to disturb the markets of 

 this country [England]. Honorable members told them that the 

 people of India were sinking, yet the population had increased by 



