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any way tend to bridge the interval, or be conducive 

 to the prosperity and happiness of the people ; but 

 on the contrary, T consider that the adoption of such 

 a course will be productive of quite opposite results. 

 For let us suppose some of the States of Rajpootanah, 

 in the centre of which lies the little British possession 

 of Ajmeer, to be visited by a severe famine. As is 

 the custom in like cases, the corn merchants would, 

 of course, buy up nearly all the grain in Ajmeer, and 

 sell it in the dearest market within reach. Now 

 according to the common law, as much grain as was 

 displaced by the purchases of the corn speculators, 

 should,forthe same cause that led to its displacement, 

 pour into Ajmeer from other neighbouring sources, 

 and the equilibrium of prices throughout the coun- 

 try be maintained. But, unfortunately, there is no 

 Zollverein in Rajpootanah. The native chiefs whose 

 territories, on all sides, hem in our little state, 

 being non-principle men, not a stone of corn would 

 be allowed to pass their frontiers. Consequently, 

 in the prosperous native states, the price of grain 

 would never rise at all, while British subjects 

 would have to purchase it at famine prices, 

 a privilege, which could they understand that they 

 were the martyrs of ' sound principles of trade/ they 

 might, perhaps, appreciate; but being very simple, 

 and very poor people, entirely ignorant of the 

 many and hard fought pitch-battles that have 

 been fought on the floor of the British House of 



