. 1904-5.] THE CAUSES OF FAMINES IN INDIA. 225 
In justification of the present high rates of taxation, we are some- 
times told that under their former rulers, the great Mogul Emperors, the 
people were taxed more heavily than they are now. But how does that 
help the present situation? Is it enough for an enlightened Christian 
power of the twentieth century to be as good as, or only a little better 
than, a cruel and tyrannical Mohammedan power of the sixteenth cen- 
tury? As a fact, however, it is probable that the taxes of the Mogul 
Emperors were not so burdensome upon the people as the present taxes 
are, for three reasons: First, the Mogul taxes were not collected nearly 
so rigidly as are the taxes of the present time. Second, the Mogul land 
taxes were collected from the ryots, or small farmers, in kind, in produce, 
whereas the present taxes are collected in money. But it is the require- 
ment that the taxes must be paid in money that makes the hardship so 
great in an agricultural land like India. Third, the taxes of the Mogul 
Emperors were spent at home, in India; they were not sent away to a 
foreign land, as so much of the present Indian revenue is, to the steady 
depletion of India’s resources. 
A GOVERNMENT BY FOREIGNERS. 
‘It has often been pointed out that the British Government in India 
is the most expensive government in the world. And of course the expense 
all has to be borne by the Indian people. The reason of the great expense 
is, the government is carried on, not by the people themselves, but 
by men from a distant country. These foreigners, having it in their 
power to fix their own salaries, naturally do not err on the side of making 
them too low. Having, as they say, to ‘“‘exile themselves from their 
native land,” they want plenty of pay for it. Nearly all the higher offi- 
cials in India are British. To be sure the Civil Service is nominally open 
to Indians, but it is hedged about with so many restrictions (among 
others, Indian young men being required to make the long journey from 
India to London to take their examinations) that for the most part they 
are able to secure only the lowest and poorest places. The government 
excludes the people of India from eighty per cent. of all salaries and 
pensions of £100 and upwards, reserving them, as a distinguished 
Indian civilian says, ‘‘for English boys wishing for a wealthy career among 
the starved people of India.” 
It is not strange that the Indian service is popular with Englishmen. 
Those who enter it are required to spend in it only twenty-five years 
(indeed only twenty-one years actually in India, since four years are 
allowed for furloughs), and then they are permitted to return to England 
when little past middle age, and spend the rest of their lives there, living 
in ease and luxury on their rich pensions and the money which they have 
