PREFACE TO THE -FIEST EDITION. 



In July 1890, Lord Connemara entrusted to me the task of 

 examining whether the economic condition of the Madras 

 Presidency has, on the whole, improved or deteriorated 

 during the last 40 or 50 years of British administration and 

 of writing a Memorandum on the subject. I was given to 

 understand that the conclusions arrived at should be based 

 not only on information officially on record but also on the 

 results of independent inquiries. To ascertain whether any 

 and what improvement has taken place in the condition of 

 the masses of the population, it was, of course, necessary 

 that an idea should be formed as to their condition in the 

 past, and, for this purpose, I had to collect and read up a 

 great mass of old reports. This took up a deal of time, and 

 I was able to write only the preliminary portion of this 

 Memorandum before the end of 1890. The departure of Lord 

 Connemara to England and pressure of other official work 

 led to the preparation of this Memorandum being laid aside 

 for some time, and I was able to resume the work only in the 

 latter half of 1891. Since then I have been more or less 

 engaged on it, but as the work has had to be carried on in 

 addition to my other official duties, it has not been possible 

 to finish it earlier. The interval, however, has been utilized 

 for collecting information on such matters as prices of com- 

 modities, wages of labour, &c., in order that it might be used 

 for testing information obtained from official sources. The 

 Government has permitted me to add another section to this 

 Memorandum containing suggestions as to certain special 

 measures to be adopted for the amelioration of the agricul- 

 tural classes in connection with land settlements, agricultural 

 banks, agricultural and industrial education, &c.j and to revise 

 the 'statistics given in the appendices to the Memorandum 



