INDIA. 



441 



pervise and control their proceedings by means 

 of an official director. In 1869 the Govern- 

 ment of India decided on carrying out all new 

 railway extensions. 



The number of miles of railroad open to 

 traffic in the beginning of 1882 was 9,875, of 

 which 4,590 were guaranteed lines, and 5,285 

 were state railroads. The number of passen- 

 gers on Indian railroads rose from 15,999,633 

 in 1869 to 52,239,865 in 1881. 



Post-Office and Telegraphy. The number of 

 letters, newspapers, and parcels which passed 

 through the Post-Office in 1881 was 158,666,- 

 856, having increased from 89,561,685 in 

 1872. 



The length of telegraph lines in operation in 

 1881 was 19,679 miles, having increased from 

 15,336 in 1872. The length of wires in 1881 

 was 54,318 miles. The total receipts were 

 452,872 ; the expenses, 310,371. The total 

 number of messages sent was 1,658,647. The 

 number of offices was 254. 



The Army. The total number of British 

 troops stationed in India, according to the 

 army estimates for 1883-'84, is 61,641. The 

 strength of the native army is 126,088. 



Finances. The receipts and expenditures, as 

 given in the closed accounts of the last three 

 years published, amounted to the following 

 sums: 



The Public Debt. The total amount of the 

 public debt was 59,943,814 in 1857. In the 

 next five years it rose to 99,632,053. Be- 

 tween 1862 and 1868 about 4,500,000 were 

 paid off, but in the fifteen years following 

 about 89,000,000 were added to the debt. 

 The amount on March 31, 1881, was 157,- 



Land Settlements. The land revenue consti- 

 tutes over one third of the total income of the 

 Government. Before the mutiny it furnished 

 more than half of the receipts of the East In- 

 dia Company. The share of the Government 

 in the profits of the land has been determined 

 in the different provinces by various settle- 

 ments. The settlements in Bengal and Benares 

 .are permanent, those in other parts of India 

 subject to periodical revision. The older set- 

 tlements give the state about two thirds of 

 the annual profits of the soil. In the revised 

 settlements recently made the share of the 

 Government is about one half of the natural 

 rent. 



In Bengal the land is chiefly owned by zem- 

 indars. The settlement of Lord Oornwallis, in 

 1793, in order to create a class of loyal local 

 magnates throughout the country and to assimi- 

 late the land system to that of' Great Britain, 



confiscated the lands of the ryots and bestowed 

 them upon the former collectors of the taxes, 

 who were vested with the entire ownership of 

 the soil. In recent times, since the zemindars 

 have proved a useless class, while the ryots 

 have suffered greatly, there has been a desire 

 to undo the act of Lord Cornwallis. It has 

 finally been decided that the zemindars are not 

 absolute proprietors, and an important part of 

 their proprietary rights has been taken away 

 from them by the Bengal tenancy bill, enacted 

 in 1883. 



The main objects of the bill are to give rea- 

 sonable security to the tenant in the occupa- 

 tion and enjoyment of his land, and also to 

 secure the landlord in the settlement and re- 

 covery of his rent. The provisions of the act 

 realize as nearly as possible the principles of 

 the Irish Land-League party enunciated in the 

 " three F s " fair rent, fixed tenure, and free 

 sale. 



Local Self-Government. Lord Kipon's scheme 

 for the tentative introduction of local self-gov- 

 ernment by representative native bodies was 

 initiated by a law passed by the Supreme Coun- 

 cil for the Central Provinces early in January. 

 Each district is divided into circles, formed by 

 aggregating several villages ; a number of these 

 circles are combined into a group, and their 

 local affairs are administered by a local board 

 for each group. These local boards are com- 

 posed of the executive head-men of the villages 

 within the group ; representatives of the mer- 

 cantile and professional classes, elected by them 

 or appointed on their -behalf ; and a number, 

 not to exceed one third of the whole, nomi- 

 nated by the Government. The local boards 

 are supervised by district councils, a part of 

 the members of which are elected by them, a 

 part are nominated by the Government, and a 

 part are representatives of the educated classes. 

 The local boards are intrusted with the ad- 

 ministration of roads, schools, hospitals, mar- 

 kets, wells, famine-relief works, tree-planting, 

 pounds and ferries, etc. 



The Ilbert Bill. The promises made by the 

 present British Cabinet to develop native self- 

 government are in accordance with the policy 

 advocated by Lord Lawrence and initiated by 

 Lords Mayo and Northbrook in the decentrali- 

 zation of finances and the establishment of 

 municipal councils. It is in the direction of 

 reforms already begun by Earl Dalhousie, but 

 arrested and delayed until the present in con- 

 sequence of the Sepoy rebellion. This policy 

 has been opposed by the Conservative party, 

 in sympathy with the military class and with 

 a large proportion of the Anglo-Indian officials, 

 used to the exercise of despotic power, who- 

 look upon India chiefly as a field for the exer- 

 cise of English administrative talent, and think 

 that the country would fall into chaos and 

 anarchy if the English rule were removed, and 

 that this can only be maintained by tyranny 

 and military power. Believing it necessary to 

 treat the Hindoos as a conquered race, they 



