

20 



setting* aside the questions of humanity, and profit, 

 and taking- into consideration, only, the immense loss 

 of productive labour and wealth to the country by the 

 destructive ravag-es of famines, if future experience 

 establishes, even problematically, that a judicious 

 system of roads and water- works, would relieve it 

 from these visitations,* there would clearly be room 

 for the outlay of many millions sterling-, at a noble 

 profit. The time for such a mig-hty undertaking-, if 

 feasible, may not be come ; but the necessity for the 

 consideration of this, or any other measure bearing 1 so 

 directly on the existence of the population, is always 

 present. For, a famine, it must be recollected, is 

 not quite the same in its effects and results in this 

 country, as it is in most countries in Europe. There, 

 there is, for the most part, an interval between the 

 failure of the crops and the period of utter starva- 

 tion, in which husbanded stores and private charity, 

 serve to keep the wolf from the door. Besides 

 which there are many out-lets. In the last famine 

 which took place in Ireland, upwards of a million of 

 people found labour and plenty within a ten days' 

 voyag-e of their homes. But here, how are the pea- 

 sant proprietors and cultivators prepared for such a 

 calamity ? In place of the husbanded store, there 

 is the debt to the Mahajan or Buniya;^ and charity, 

 where all are involved in like distress, is hopeless. 



* See my lamented friend Col. Baird Smith's remarks, 

 regarding the Ganges Canal, in his report on the Famine of 

 1861. 



f The money-lender or corn- dealer. 



