INDIA. 



421 



cultivating the soil would, if carried out over 

 the cultivated area of India, be sufficient to 



Erovide abundant stores to support the popu- 

 ition through all the droughts and famines, 

 and the locust and rat plagues. New staples 

 have been introduced in the last few years. 

 The jute, tea, and coffee trades together al- 

 ready exceed $50,000,000 annually. The syn- 

 dicate which received assistance from the Gov- 

 ernment for the purpose of extending the tea 

 market, succeeded in introducing Indian tea in 

 America, and in increasing the exports to Aus- 

 tralia from 86,628 to 621,128 pounds. Sugar 

 and quinine are other new products, and to- 

 bacco, which already competes with American 

 tobacco in Italy. Leather and forest products 

 of various kinds are the materials for newly 

 started trades. The mineral resources of India 

 must soon be brought out by the aid of the 

 railways. There have been gold discoveries 

 within a couple of years, which have led to 

 enormous speculation in London, but their act- 

 ual value has not yet been determined. 



The British rule in India is still a pure mili- 

 tary despotism. The feeling of discontent is 

 so deep and general that the Government 

 would be overthrown the moment that the 

 certainty of prompt and terrible retribution 

 were not felt. The military forces are kept 

 constantly on the move to suppress insurrec- 

 tions in all parts of the empire, which would 

 spread like a conflagration except for the sum- 

 mary and relentless vengeance of the British 

 soldiers. To maintain a military establishment 

 sufficient to hold in subjection the whole pop- 

 ulation and support the costly civil administra- 

 tion by foreigners, who are allowed to reap 

 large fortunes during a brief incumbency out 

 of their emoluments, besides paying an annual 

 tribute to Great Britain, requiring the remit- 

 tance of $85,000,000 annually, to meet the 

 Secretary of State's bills, must keep India in a 

 state of perpetual poverty. These causes ex- 

 plain why enormous quantities of food must 

 be exported in years when millions of the peo- 

 ple are dying of starvation. In the words of 

 Lord Hartington, " India is a poor country, her 

 people a poor people, her commerce a weak 

 commerce." The total foreign trade is $624,- 

 000,000, which is less than $2.50 per head of 

 the population, whereas the commerce of Great 

 Britain is over $100 per head. The Indian 

 imports amount to about $250,000,000, over 

 three fifths of which come from Great Britain 

 and pay an enforced tribute, necessitated by a 

 commercial policy adopted in the interest of 

 British manufacturers, while the whole com- 

 merce must pay the profits of English mer- 

 chants and ship-owners. The excess of ex- 

 ports, amounting to $120,000,000, consists of 

 little else than the annual drain to Great Brit- 

 ain. The impoverishment of the people by the 

 extortions of their conquerors has resulted al- 

 most in the extinction of the arts of weaving, 

 dyeing, metal-working, etc., which might, in 

 the present development of international com- 



merce, be a source of much wealth. There 

 are, however, reasons for expecting a slow im- 

 provement in the material condition of the 

 people of India, if no political convulsion inter- 

 venes to prevent the effect of causes now 

 working. The English people are more solicit- 

 ous for the welfare of the Indian subjects 

 since the famine of 1877, and wish their bur- 

 dens to be lightened by every reform which 

 would not conflict with English mercantile in- 

 terests. The net- work of railroads which has 

 already been built ought to contribute to the 

 prosperity of the country, not merely by de- 

 veloping its natural resources, but by allow- 

 ing the military force to be reduced, and thus 

 lightening the taxes; although the Secretary 

 of State expresses himself as unable to see 

 any way of diminishing the military expendi- 

 tures. The mineral wealth of India has never 

 been at all developed. Coal-mines have been 

 opened within the last twenty years, and in 

 1879-'80 the wants of half the railroads and 

 factories in the country were supplied. There 

 is a coal-bearing area covering 30,000 square 

 miles. The most promising branch of industry 

 has been cotton-manufacturing. There were 

 in 1880, in Calcutta and Bombay, 53 spinning 

 and weaving mills, employing 1,500,000 spin- 

 dles. Besides supplying a considerable propor- 

 tion of the domestic needs, a trade sprang up 

 in fabrics manufactured from native-grown 

 cotton with China, where they were preferred 

 to the spurious products of Lancashire. This 

 trade increased in five years from $1,000,000 

 to nearly $5,000,000. This industry was en- 

 couraged by protective duties, but is to be stifled 

 iff the interests of Manchester. The late Gov- 

 ernment by an artful stroke reduced the duty 

 in such a way as to render it useless for reve- 

 nue purposes, and to plunge the whole trade 

 into confusion, and the present Government is 

 looking for an excuse to throw it off entirely. 

 The exports of cotton manufactures from Great 

 Britain, to India are $105,000,000 in value, be- 

 ing 28 per cent of the total exports of Great 

 Britain, and 70 per cent of the total import 

 trade of India. 



The sudden changes in the policy of the 

 Government which are made by every new 

 administration would hinder the progress of 

 any country, and their effect on the conserva- 

 tive temper of the Hindoos is to paralyze the 

 spirit of enterprise and to vex and irritate the 

 people perpetually. Every time there is a 

 change of government in England there is an 

 entire reversal of policy in India in great things 

 and small things. The " forward " policy alter- 

 nates with the policy of " masterly inactivity," 

 and the bewildering spectacle is next presented 

 of the victorious British army being made, in 

 the words of Lord Beaconsfield, to " cut and 

 run from the scene of a splendid conquest." 

 One administration tears up the broad-gauge 

 railroads to lay down the narrow guage, an- 

 other replaces the broad gauge, and the next 

 changes it again. Public works half completed 



