ccxeiu 



and within 8 years after the commencement of this period the 

 direct Government of the ; Indian Empire was transferred fi-om the 

 East India Company to the Crown. The gold discoveries in California 

 and Australia, of com^se, made the carrying out of these reforms pos- 

 sible, by stimulating foreign trade, causing an influx of the precious 

 metals, and replenishing an insufficient currency. From 1850 to 1870 

 under the stimulus of the exceptionally high prices of commodities 

 which ruled, the causes of which I have explained in my Memorandum, 

 there was enormous expansion of cultivation and trade, and the period 

 was one of unexampled, if inflated, prosperity. After 1870 prices 

 suddenly fell and gave a check to cultivation, and the famine that 

 followed was one of appalling severity and strained the resources of 

 the country to the utmost. From a national point of view, the first 

 period comprised the " fat '' years and the second the " lean " ones, 

 and in a country where the " fat " and " lean " years come in almost 

 regular succession, the proper method to adopt in estimating the 

 normal advance made is not to take either period by itself,^but to take 

 the combined period as a whole. This is what I have done! 



II. Rerieicer's analysis of the statistics of the acreage of holdings. — The 

 reviewer's procedure in taking a period of 20 years for gauging 

 the general advance made by the country under British administra- 

 tion is about as reasonable as the conduct of a man who, to estimate 

 the advance in general health made under a course of hygienic treat- 

 ment by a patient subject to periodical attacks of fever which occasion- 

 ally assumes a malignant form, compares the state of his health when 

 it was at its best with the state at which it is a short time after he has 

 suffered from one of the most malignant of such attacks. For the 

 more limited purpose of finding out how far the country has, under the 

 impetus given by good administration, been enabled to recover from 

 the disastrous effects of the late famine, a comparison for a shorter 

 period would doubtless be legitimate, but in that case the period 

 taken should not be the last 20 but the last 10 years. If such a 

 comparison be made, it will be found that the country is rapidly 

 recovering from the effects of the late famine. In 1875 the ryotwar 

 holdings amounted to 20 [million acres, of which IG-J millions con- 

 sisted of unirrigated and 3'7 millions of irrigated land. The famine 

 which commenced in 1876 lasted till 1878, while its immediate after- 

 effects continued do^vn to 1882. By 1882, the accounts were cleared 

 of holdings which had been entered in the names of ryots who had 

 deserted or died, and the total area was reduced to 18*8 millions of 

 acres, of which 15 millions of acres consisted of lands classed as unirri- 

 gated and 3"8 millions of lands classed as irrigated. In 1890, the 

 acreage of holdings had increased to 21 millions — 16"9 millions of 

 unirrigated land and 4"1 millions of irrigated land. The advance 

 made in 8 years was ir7 per cent. — 12'6 per cent, in unirrigated 

 and 8 per cent, in irrigated land. These figures have doubtless to be 

 discoiinted on account of excess of area found in holdings over and 

 above the area entered in the revenue accounts according to the old 

 measurements in districts resurveyed subsequent to 1882 ; but this 

 excess area is very small. The only districts in which the new survey 

 areas were introduced between 1882 and 1890 were portions of Cud- 

 dapah, South Arcot, Madura and Ganjdm, the Wynaad and the whole 

 of the North Arcot district except one taluk, and Vizagapatam. 



