416 



INDIA. 



of the Indian exchequer. Their agent in Ca- 

 bool, Mohammed Afzul Khan, is, through his 

 birth, education, and character, persona grata 

 with the Ameer. The small but important 

 province of Maimanah in Northern Afghan- 

 istan, which has often before attempted to 

 throw off the yoke of the Ameer, has entered 

 into relations with the Russians through the 

 Turkomans, and with arms supplied by them 

 rebelled against Abdurrahman. The approach- 

 ing dissolution of the Khan of Bokhara, far- 

 ther east, furnished the British embassador in 

 St. Petersburg with new material for diplo- 

 matic questionings and protests, which are 

 usually treated by the Russians as empty for- 

 malities. With Bokhara a Russian province, 

 the dominions of the Czar will extend to the 

 Oxus from its source to its mouth, the limit 

 prescribed by Lord Clarendon in 1872. 



The dissipated King Thebaw of Burmah still 

 holds out against the aggressive designs of the 

 British. As the present home Government is 

 not inclined to gratify the traders, eager for a 

 new field of exploitation, and the military thirst- 

 ing for action in India by new aggressions on the 

 frontiers, the matter has hung in suspense since 

 the hasty flight of the British embassy from 

 Mandalay. An embassy was sent by the King 

 to arrange the subjects in dispute, which ranged 

 from the question of the British embassador's 

 wearing shoes at the Mandalay court to that 

 of maintaining a fortified residency and guard, 

 and forcing the Burmese Government to abol- 

 ish its trade monopolies for the benefit of Brit- 

 ish merchants. The last question furnishes the 

 key to the situation. It was this which called 

 out vigorous representations from Lord Ripon 

 to the court of Ava, that led to the sending of 

 the Burmese envoys. When the Burmese Gov- 

 ernment sounded the position of the British 

 authorities, it immediately recalled their em- 

 bassadors. 



LEGISLATION AND FINANCE. The most im- 

 portant sources of revenue are the land-taxes, 

 the opium monopoly, and the salt-tax. Of the 

 total revenue in 1880, amounting to 68,484,- 

 666, 22,463,548 came from the land, 10,- 

 319,162 from opium, and 7,266,413 from salt. 

 The East India Company, in drawing more than 

 half of the revenues of the Government from 

 the land, continued the practice of former con- 

 querors. The English found the ryots en- 

 slaved by rulers who treated the land as their 

 own. There was no basis for peasant pro- 

 prietorship but the ancient communal owner- 

 ship. This was equally repugnant to their 

 ideas as the plan of assuming the title to the 

 whole country and the direction of all agri- 

 cultural operations. They accordingly en- 

 deavored to abolish both the village commu- 

 nities and the overlying rights of the princes 

 by cutting up the land into large estates, like 

 those to which they were accustomed in Eng- 

 land, and granting them in fee simple to 

 the former tax-gatherers. The class of land- 

 lords thus created have not, however, been 



treated as absolute owners. In the tax sys- 

 tem and in the schemes for agricultural im- 

 provement, the idea of joint state owner- 

 ship is retained, except in Bengal, where a 

 permanent settlement was made in the last 

 century; and in Benares, where the land was 

 permanently settled about the same time. In 

 the temporary settlements made in the other 

 provinces, usually for thirty -year periods, the 

 Government takes as its share about two thirds 

 on the average of the annual profits from the 

 land. The proportion grows less during the 

 period of the settlement as the land improves 

 in value. In some parts of India, as in Bom- 

 bay and Madras, there are no zemindars, or 

 large proprietors. In those provinces the 

 ryots stand in the position of tenants from the 

 Government, which can eject them when they 

 fail to meet their annual assessments. In some 

 districts village proprietorship still prevails. 

 The Marquis of Ripon, pursuing the policy of 

 decentralization inaugurated by Lord Mayo, 

 has assigned additional heads of revenue to the 

 unfettered control of the provincial govern- 

 ments, and also a fixed proportion of the land 

 revenue, varying from 22 per cent in the 

 Northwest Provinces to 50 per cent in Bom- 

 bay, and averaging about 33 per cent. The 

 reform is to be carried still further by placing 

 the receipts and expenditures in the charge of 

 local bodies, composed of non- official and elec- 

 tive members. These local boards are ex- 

 pected to aid in devising the system of tax- 

 ation best suited to the character of the people. 

 The smallest administrative divisions will be 

 the taluka or the tahsil, not larger than coun- 

 ties. These bodies, municipal and rural, will be 

 composed for the most part of representative, 

 non-official natives, whose action will be re- 

 vised, but not inspired, by the bureaucratic 

 authorities. The employment of natives in 

 the civil service is increasing. Major Baring 

 reports that, out of 4,082 appointments in the 

 covenanted and uncovenanted services, 2,024, 

 or as nearly as possible one half, are held by 

 natives. 



The financial estimates for 1882-'83 place 

 the revenue at 664,590,000 rupees, and the ex- 

 penditure at 661,740,000 rupees. The railway 

 receipts are counted at 4,680,000 rupees less 

 than in 1881-'82; the loss by exchange at 

 5,190,000 rupees less, the rupee being calcu- 

 lated at Is. 8d. The military expenditure is 

 estimated at 155,920,000 rupees, being less than 

 in any year since 1877. The Government car- 

 ries out this year two bold and somewhat 

 hazardous measures of fiscal reform the re- 

 peal of the import duties and the reduction of 

 the salt impost in addition to further steps in 

 the direction of decentralization and local self- 

 government which involve losses to the Im- 

 perial Treasury. 



The Indian Government have made the ex- 

 pected clean sweep of the remaining import 

 duties in obedience to the desires of British 

 manufacturers and in defiance of public opin- 



