494 



INDIA. 



at a time when the people were ill able to 

 bear them. 



The great khoomh, or duodecennial festival, 

 at Hurdwar proved, like tbat of 1867, disas- 

 trous in its consequences. From 750,000 to 

 1,000,000 pilgrims assembled, and, despite the 

 precautions taken by the authorities, cholera 

 ' in a severe form broke out a few days before 

 the close of the fair. The streams of return- 

 ing pilgrims carried the disease in various di- 

 rections toward their homes, and soon after the 

 close of the fair outbreaks were reported from 

 Delhi, Umritsur, Eawul Pindee, and other 

 places of northern India. Great mortality 

 among the pilgrims was reported from several 

 districts; thus it was asserted that of 80,000 

 who went to the fair from a single district of 

 Kumaon, one fourth were missing. 



A severe famine prevailed in the tributary 

 state of Cashmere, and excited the serious at- 

 tention of the Indian Government, which im- 

 pressed upon the Maharajah the duty of adopt- 

 ing effective measures of relief. A British 

 officer was sent to assist the local authorities, 

 and large quantities of grain were dispatched 

 to the distressed districts. 



On May 22d, in the English House of Com- 

 mons, Mr. C. Stanhope made a statement of 

 the finances of India, showing an estimated 

 deficit of 1,400,000 for the coming year, 

 which it was proposed to meet by a reduction 

 of outlay upon public works and upon other 

 branches of expenditure. Mr. Fawcett, ac- 

 cepting the statement as a vindication of his 

 views, changed his announced resolution for 

 diminishing expenditure into one of approval 

 of the Government's recommendations. On 

 May 23d Mr. O'Donnell moved a vote of cen- 

 sure upon Lord Lytton for his reply to a depu- 

 tation of the British Indian Association, but 

 it was rejected by 215- to 36. On June 12th 

 Mr. Gladstone spoke in strong terms of some of 

 the recent acts of the Indian Government, and 

 urged the establishment of a permanent con- 

 trol over Indian expenditure. On July 1st the 

 House of Commons discussed the bill to enable 

 the Government of India to purchase the East 

 Indian Railway, and a resolution of Mr. Faw- 

 cett that the measure should not be regarded 

 as a precedent was agreed to. On the 2d the 

 bill was passed. 



In order to lay some of the grievances of 

 the people of India before the British public, 

 the Indian Association sent a barrister of 

 Calcutta, Mr. Lai Mohun Ghose, to England. 

 On July 23d a crowded meeting was held in 

 London, under the presidency of John Bright, 

 to hear his address and "consider certain 

 questions affecting the interests of the people 

 of India." The Indian barrister severely at- 

 tacked the English Government in India. 

 Questions concerning education and taxation 

 had alike been decided in such a way that the 

 Indian subjects of the Queen had no voice 

 in their consideration, although they had 

 to pay the taxes which were necessary to de- 



fray the expenses. The people of India pro- 

 tested against the war in Afghanistan, a war 

 hi which politics had been divorced from 

 morals ; and contended that in the circum- 

 stances they ought not to be called upon to 

 pay any part of the cost, or that, if any pay- 

 ment was to be made, England should bear an 

 adequate part of the cost. The main grievance 

 which the natives felt was that they had no 

 voice in the government of the country, and 

 this they thought ought to be remedied. Mr. 

 Bright also made a long speech in which he 

 dwelt on the burdensome character of the 

 military expenditure in England, and said, if 

 there was no possible escape from it, he 

 thought it would be almost better to surren- 

 der, to confess the failure of English rule, and 

 to say that the government of a great empire 

 in Asia by persons sent out as rulers from the 

 small island of Great Britain was impossible, 

 and should never have existed. He complained 

 of the high salaries paid to civil servants in 

 India, and of the non-fulfillment by successive 

 governments of the pledges made to the people 

 of India with respect to the facilities to be af- 

 forded for their admission to the civil service. 



An attempt on the life of the Viceroy was 

 made on December 12th. He had just arrived 

 in Calcutta, and as his cortege was driving to 

 the Government house, and after crossing the 

 Hoogly bridge, a Eurasian in the street fired 

 two shots from a revolver at Lord Lytton's 

 carriage, and then a third shot at the next car- 

 riage, in which Colonel and Lady Colley were 

 seated. Colonel Colley jumped from the car- 

 riage, and with Captain Rose arrested the as- 

 sassin without difficulty. They found on him 

 a revolver with two chambers loaded and 

 three recently discharged. The man, whose 

 name is Deesa, was described as being intoxi- 

 cated at the time, and as having been in a lu- 

 natic asylum. He was in Government employ 

 in a subordinate capacity, but was dismissed 

 owing to his weakness of intellect, and was 

 said on that occasion to have threatened to kill 

 the head of his department. 



A fresh trouble arose in October for the In- 

 dian Government in the Naga Hills. On Octo- 

 ber 14th the Naga tribe, which murdered an 

 English officer nearly five years ago, attacked 

 and killed Mr. G. H. Damant, deputy com- 

 missioner and political agent for the Naga 

 Hills. The tribes which cause the British the 

 most trouble are those which inhabit the coun- 

 try south of Assam. They occupy the districts 

 stretching into Burmah past Cachar, Chitta- 

 gong, and Aracan. Some of the Nagas have 

 settled down to a peaceful mode of existence. 

 Those of the Lebsagur district may be classed 

 among these. Whenever (and it has been 

 very seldom indeed) an outrage has occurred 

 among them, they have at once made ample 

 atonement to the British officials,, resorting to 

 the simple expedient of closing the neigh- 

 boring market to the offenders. With many 

 other sections this remedy has proved effica- 



