INDIA. 



387 



native princes, and during the twenty years of 

 his reign had succeeded in raising Travancore 

 to a very high position among the native states. 

 He was succeeded by his younger brother, who 

 had been known as the first Prince of Travan- 

 core. The dynasty of Travancore traces its 

 descent, according to Malabar custom, in the 

 female line, for a thousand years back. The 

 state has an area of nearly seven thousand 

 square miles, and a population of more than 

 two millions. Both the late prince and the new 

 one were versed in Sanskrit learning and accu- 

 rate in the use of the English language. At the 

 ceremony of coronation the prince delivered 

 an inaugural address, in which he said in ref- 

 erence to the English : " One of my illustri- 

 ous predecessors, who died in the year in which 

 that master- architect, Olive, laid the founda- 

 tion of the British Empire in the East at the 

 field of Plassey, calling his successor to his 

 bedside, gave him as his last words of advice : 

 ' These Englishmen appear destined to rise to 

 power and glory unparalleled. Be it your con- 

 stant aim and endeavor to secure their friend- 

 ship and support.' " 



The Indian Government, intending to hand 

 over the administration of Mysore to the Ma- 

 harajah at the beginning of the next year, has 

 taken steps to substitute natives for Europeans 

 in most official positions. 



In the course of a speech, delivered at In- 

 dore, on the occasion of a banquet given by 

 Sir Richard Meade, the Maharajah Holkar 

 dwelt with pride on the social and industrial 

 development which the state had undergone in 

 the period which had just closed. He pointed 

 to an increased revenue, increased industry, 

 and an increased peasant population, as the re- 

 sult of the revenue system set on foot nearly 

 fifteen years before, while an extended and 

 improved cultivation had amply repaid the lib- 

 eral encouragement given by the state to cul- 

 tivators, in the shape of advances for irriga- 

 tion, remissions in seasons of scarcity, and 

 advice in reference to the rotation of crops, 

 which would yield the largest return for the 

 smallest outlay on their lands. "Our friend 

 Sir Richard Meade," the Maharajah continued, 

 " had left Indore to assume the chief commis- 

 sionership of Mysore, before the chimney of 

 our cotton-mill had raised its lofty head. He 

 will now find the mill at full work, giving oc- 

 cupation to numbers of my poor subjects." 

 All of this social and industrial progress was 

 to be attributed to the continuance of tran- 

 quillity at home, which, Holkar said, was of as 

 vital importance to his state as to the para- 

 mount power. The preservation of peace, he 

 added, was " the one common object, the one 

 touch of nature which makes us kin. It binds 

 us ^ together with adamantine bonds, in close 

 alliance and heart-felt attachment. It is this 

 which makes us proud of General Roberts's 

 glorious fortnights march into Cabool, which 

 makes us rejoice at his repeated successes, and 

 draws forth our prayers for a victorious termi- 



nation to his campaign, which I would fain 

 hope is not very distant." The cotton-factory 

 of the Maharajah, which was referred to in his 

 speech, was operated during 1878-'79 at a 

 profit of 50,083 rupees, and turned out 71,431 

 pieces of cloth, weighing 432,041 pounds, and 

 30,863 pounds of yarn. The goods of the fac- 

 tory have an excellent reputation for being 

 honestly made of good material. 



The experiments which were made several 

 years ago, for naturalizing in certain parts of 

 India the cinchona-tree, from which the Peru- 

 vian bark is produced, have been attended 

 with a remarkable success and beneficial re- 

 sults. The cultivation of these trees in the 

 government plantations in Bengal in 1879-'80, 

 embraced 750,000 young trees, which yielded 

 a crop of 361,590 pounds of dry bark. Anew 

 variety of cinchona, yielding the Carthagena 

 bark of commerce, was successfully brought 

 into cultivation. A consignment of calisaya 

 bark was made for sale in the London market. 

 A saving of 40,000 had been effected in the 

 cost of the quinine consumed in Calcutta, while 

 the saving in former years amounted to about 

 80,000 ; making a total saving to the end of 

 1879 of about 120,000, or about 15,000 more 

 than the plantations had cost from their origin, 

 including compound interest on the outlay in- 

 curred at the rate of four per cent, per annum. 

 The cultivation of the cinchona is regarded as 

 highly advantageous in other economical senses, 

 not only because it offers a new branch of in- 

 dustry and trade, but also because of its bear- 

 ing on the traffic in opium. The opium which 

 is consumed in China is in by far the largest 

 degree taken as a medicine by the millions of 

 cultivators who inhabit the low, swampy tracts 

 of country which border the great rivers, where 

 fevers are always present. It is believed that 

 by reason of the immense superiority of qui- 

 nine over opium as a febrifuge, if it were suffi- 

 ciently abundant to come into competition with 

 that drug, and could be sold at a reasonable 

 price, it would supplant it. Thus, the embar- 

 rassing questions which make the suppression 

 of the opium-trade so difficult, could be set- 

 tled without causing an important disturbance 

 to Indian industries. 



An interesting debate on the affairs of India 

 took place in the British House of Commons 

 in February, when Sir D. Wedderburn called 

 attention to the importance of conferring on 

 the people of the country some measure of 

 representation, either in the Legislative Coun- 

 cils or otherwise, in order that the Indian Gov- 

 ernment might have greater facilities than those 

 at present existing for ascertaining native opin- 

 ion on public questions. M. E. Stanhope, on. 

 the part of the Government, while he sympa- 

 thized with the desire to extend representative 

 institutions, pointed out that the inhabitants of 

 India Avere not one people, but a conglomera- 

 tion of peoples, without cohesion and without 

 any basis for representation. Nevertheless, 

 there were at present no less than 894 mu- 



