400 



INDIA. 



with last year. The only change in taxation 

 was that the income tax was to be raised from 

 H to 3^- per cent. The addition to the Indian 

 debt, during the year ending March 31, 1870, 

 was 4,250,000, making a total of 75,418,289. 

 The total value of imports from foreign coun- 

 tries (United Kingdom included) into British 

 India, for the year 1869, amounted to 50,943,- 

 191, while the total value of exports reached 

 53,706,830. The principal articles of export 

 and their value were: Coifee, 1,111,027; 

 cotton, raw, 19,707,877; dyes and drugs, 

 3,068,000; jute and jute-manufactures, 2,- 

 070,242; opium, 10,695,654; seeds of all 

 sorts, 1,927,989; silk, 1,269,468; tea, 974,- 

 519 ; treasure, 1,390,344. 



The paid-up capital of Indian railroads, to 

 December 31, 1869, was 84,721,306; total 

 interest paid thereon, 29,778,757 ; amount ex- 

 pended, 82,135,559. Eailway communication 

 is now open from Bombay to Madras and Cal- 

 cutta, and the principal cantonments in India. 



During the month of August the entire line 

 of railroad between Calcutta and Lahore, the 

 capital of the Punjab, was thrown open to 

 commerce. The great iron bridge over the 

 Sutlej was completed, and Calcutta was thus 

 brought into direct communication with Mool- 

 tan, a distance of 1,554 miles. 



On April 27th the first telegram was re- 

 ceived in London direct from Calcutta ; it 

 reached its destination at eleven o'clock A. M. 

 of the day on which it was written in Asia. 

 Telegraphic service between India and Eng- 

 land was greatly benefited by the completion 

 of the Falmouth, Gibraltar, and Malta sub- 

 marine cable, connecting at the latter island 

 with the cables already established in the 

 Mediterranean, and thence with lines from 

 Suez to Bombay, thus making a direct tele- 

 graphic route from that part of India to Eng- 

 land. On June 23d the Viceroy of India sent 

 the following dispatch to the President of the 

 United States : 



BOMBAY ? INDIA, June 23, 1870. 



To tTie President of the United, States, Washington : 

 The Viceroy of India for the first time speaks direct 

 by telegraph with the President of the United States. 

 May this long line of uninterrupted communication 

 be the emblem of lasting union between the Eastern 

 and the Western world ! 



THE VICEEOY OF INDIA. 



The dispatch was received at Washington 

 on the same day. In honor of the company 

 which had completed the Bombay line, a ban- 

 quet was given in London, at which a dispatch 

 was read from Cyrus W. Field, stating that 

 within one year a cable would be laid from In- 

 dia to China and Australia, and that before 

 the end of 1872 a cable would be in operation 

 between California, the Sandwich Islands, 

 Japan, and China. 



The Calcutta and Singapore Telegraph Com- 

 pany reported the immersion of a cable for 

 the connection of the two cities, a distance of 

 1,825 miles; another cable was also laid be- 

 tween Bombay and Aden. 



The receipts from private telegraphic mes- 

 sages, for 1867-'68, were 93,357; Govern- 

 ment messages, 49,621; making a total of 

 142,978. In June, 1870, communication be- 

 tween London' and Bombay by way of the 

 new cable was completed. Dispatches are 

 transmitted in from five to six hours. 



During the civil war in the United States, 

 the export of cotton from the Southern States 

 to England was of course very limited ; for not 

 only was there a great falling off in produc- 

 tion, but the blockade of the Southern ports 

 also materially interfered with its shipment. 

 The British spinners were greatly disturbed by 

 this lack of supply, and prevailed upon the 

 Government of India to urge the increased cul- 

 tivation of cotton in that country. The desire 

 to thus become gradually independent of the 

 United States by creating another adequate 

 source of supply was shared by the great ma- 

 jority of those interested in the cotton-trade in 

 England. The Government of India readily 

 complied, without taking into consideration 

 the disastrous consequences which an exces- 

 sive cultivation of cotton at the expense of 

 the production of cereals could not fail to have 

 in a densely-populated country. Mr. Forbes, 

 the government commissary to whom the su- 

 perintendence of the cotton culture had been 

 intrusted, reports that in the western prov- 

 inces of India alone there was an increase, in 

 1869, of nearly one million acres of cotton- 

 lands over previous years. But, as the Bombay 

 Guardian very pertinently remarks, one mill- 

 ion acres of cotton more means one million 

 acres of grain less, and increases the danger of 

 famine exactly to that extent. It has always 

 been difficult to establish an equilibrium be- 

 tween the production of grain and its con- 

 sumption, but, whenever that equilibrium has 

 not existed, there has been a famine in India. 

 "The good people in Manchester," says the 

 Guardian, "hold largely-attended meetings 

 and pass resolutions to urge the increased pro- 

 duction of cotton in these latitudes, without, 

 apparently, deigning to inquire into the un- 

 avoidable consequences of such a measure to 

 the people of India. This excessive cultivation 

 of cotton was commenced seven years ago, 

 and we have since had one famine after an- 

 other in Madras, in Orissa, in the central 

 provinces, in the northwest, and in Rajpootana. 

 And, although we have not had any actual 

 famine in the presidency of Bombay, it will 

 come upon us without fail, unless the Govern- 

 ment provides for an adequate culture of grain, 

 or desists from its present policy, which has 

 proved so fearfully destructive of life. We 

 know on good authority that the population 

 of Rajpootana has not only been decimated by 

 the want of grain, but that every third man 

 there has died of hunger. In Orissa, one mill- 

 ion and a half of the inhabitants have perished 

 from the same cause, while in the other prov- 

 inces their number cannot fall short of half a 

 million." 



