CHAP. xxi. CONCLUSION. 377 



and frugal in the highest degree ; and the soil and climate 

 are such that the one thing wanted to ensure good crops 

 and abundance of food is water-storage for irrigation, 

 and absolute permanence of tenure for the cultivator. 

 That we have built costly railways for the benefit of 

 merchants and capitalists^ and have spent upon these and 

 upon frontier-wars the money which would have secured 

 water for irrigation wherever wanted, and thus pre- 

 vented the continued recurrence of famine whenever the 

 rains are deficient, is an evil attendant on our rule which 

 outweighs many of its benefits. 



The final and absolute test of good government is the 

 well-being and contentment of the people not the ex- 

 tent of empire or the abundance of the revenue and the 

 trade. Tried by this test, how seldom have we suc- 

 ceeded in ruling subject peoples! Rebellion, recurrent 

 famines, and plagues in India ; discontent, chronic want, 

 and misery; famines more or less severe, and continuous 

 depopulation in our sister-island at home these must 

 surely be reckoned the most terrible and most disastrous 

 failures of the nineteenth century. 



" Hear then, ye Senates! hear this truth sublime: 

 They who allow Oppression share the crime." 



mental cause of all Indian (as they are of all Irish) famines. But, 

 quite recently, they have been again described, with admirable lucid- 

 ity and almost unnecessary moderation, by Sir William Wedderburn, 

 whose great experience in India as a District Judge, and long study 

 of the subject, constitute him one of the first authorities. See a series 

 of articles in the periodical India for Februaiy, March, May, and 

 June, 1897. A. reprint of the whole under the very appropriate 

 title, "The Skeleton at the [Jubilee] Feast," has been sent to all 

 members of the House of Commons; and they should be read by 

 everyone who wishes to comprehend the terrible misgovemment of 

 our Indian Empire. 



