21 



Emigration, again, is barred by distance ; but were 

 it not so, want of means would render it impossible. 

 When famines then, occur in India, the people let 

 their cattle run wild, and deserting their homes, 

 wander about the country in search of food. The 

 Indian's love for his village-home is proverbial. To 

 desert it is his last resource. Thousands faint on 

 the way and perish ; and those who reach a great 

 city ? or some of those public works that Government, 

 in such cases, usually press on with more than con- 

 templated energy,* survive but to commence the 

 world a- fresh, with a heavy debt (if not remitted) 

 for the year's revenue of the land, that yielded no 



* From a Besolution of Sir Bartle Frere, Governor of 

 Bombay, passed last month (Sept. 1862), honourable alike to 

 his wisdom as a statesman, his ability as an economist, and 

 his humanity as a man, I make the following extracts : 



" The high prices to which grain has risen, and which, after 

 making allowance even for the effects of the recent fall of rain, 

 are 75 to 100 per cent, above the average prices of the last two 

 years, renders the provision of permanent and steady employ- 

 ment for all who require work, essential, to prevent great 

 distress, if not actual want, during the ensuing season. * * * 

 This state of things is aggravated by the prohibition placed by 

 His Highness the Nizam on the exportation of grain from his 

 Provinces, which usually furnish large quantities of grain to 

 the Eastern districts of the Zillas and Southern Mahratta 

 Country. * * * As it is of the utmost importance that 

 measures for relief should not be delayed, until the people are 

 bordering on starvation and have lost all heart : ,f His Excellency 

 in Council desires that the Public Works Department will 

 take immediate steps through the Executive Engineers, in 

 concert with the Collectors and local Native Officers, to 

 organize the gangs of workmen on such of the works above 

 mentioned as may be selected by the local Officers for imme- 

 diate execution." 



t The adoption of an opposite principle by thfiLEoard of 

 Revenue in Bengal was a material cause of the/interestsjof the 

 famine in Orissa in 18G6. January, 1867. 



