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to are applicable with, all the greater force for two reasons, 

 viz., first, that the agricultural classes being less intelligent 

 and self-reliant than the corresponding classes in European 

 countries require to be taken in hand by Government to a 

 greater extent than in the latter ; and, secondly, that Govern- 

 ment being a sort of co-proprietor with the ryot, the relations 

 between the two are more intimate. The relations and 

 responsibilities of Government may be briefly described as 

 follows : — The country is, and must for a long time continue 

 to be, agricultural. The returns from agriculture are pre- 

 carious in considerable portions of the country owing to 

 frequent droughts ; and this very uncertainty weakens the 

 inducements to thrift and provident foresight, and the ryot is 

 consequently very poor. Former Governments took all that 

 they could from the agricultural classes, leaving them but 

 the barest means of subsistence. During partial droughts, 

 they gave the ryots the wherewithal to carry on the culti- 

 vation on which their own revenue depended, but when a 

 really great famine came on the land, owing to the failure 

 of several seasons in succession, the people were left to die, 

 and did so in large numbers. The British Government, on 

 the other hand, has limited the demand for revenue, and 

 left the ryot to shift for himself in ordinary seasons, but 

 has undertaken the duty of saving life to the extent of its 

 power and resources, when extraordinary calamities occur. 

 Further, by the extension of communications and the crea- 

 tion of a foreign trade, it has imparted additional value to 

 the ryot's produce and mitigated the violent fluctuations in 

 the prices of food stuffs forming the chief articles of internal 

 trade. The ryot has thus been freed from a state of bond- 

 age or serfdom, and is allowed to enjoy the full benefit of 

 what he earns by his industry, enterprise or skill ; and the 

 result is that many ryots have accordingly benefited. The 

 present system, however, bears hard on the incapable, the 

 unfortunate and the unenterprising. No laws or institutions 

 can, except in an indirect way by educational agencies, help 

 those who will not help themselves, but whenever it is in the 

 power of Government to do so, means ought to be provided 

 for those who are merely unfortunate, — i.e., those who for no 

 causes which human foresight can prevent are reduced to 

 distress — obtaining, on reasonable terms and not as an elee- 

 mosynary grant, the help which would enable them to tide 

 over a brief season of distress or carry out improvements 

 which the Jands they cultivate stand in need of. This class 

 is a numerous one in this country, as the population is 

 mainly agricultural, the holdings of lands of small size 



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