392 



INDIA. 



value. Government was fully alive to the im- 

 portance of the question, but was unable at 

 present to announce any action upon it. 



He then turned to the famine, and estimated 

 its cost at 6,250,000, although the area and 

 the intensity of distress were much greater 

 than during the Bengal famine, which cost 

 6,750,000. This encouraging fact was due 

 partly to the completion of adequate railway 

 communication, partly to the application of 

 principles which experience had proved to be 

 sound, and to the energy and discretion with 

 which these principles were carried out. The 

 person to whom the country was chiefly in- 

 debted for the present moderate estimate was 

 Lord Northbrook, who laid down most impor- 

 tant principles, which the Government were 

 now following as far as possible. 



GATEWAY OP THE TEMPLE OF JUGGERNAUT. 



The Viceroy next turned to military expendi- 

 ture. The increase was mainly due to charges 

 not under the control of the Government of 

 India, but part of the increase was caused by 

 measures recently taken to improve the power 

 of rapid mobilization, which measures had 

 been magnified and misrepresented by unin- 

 structed rumor into preparations for a great 

 campaign. No such design was ever enter- 

 tained. 



It had been his privilege to conduct to a suc- 

 cessful issue efforts for JJienacifi cation of 

 Kelat begun by Lord Northbrook. , The pres- 

 ent relations with Kelat were more satisfac- 

 tory, more fraught with promise of the fu- 

 ture and security for the present, than had 



been the case for many years. The country 

 was now quiet and prosperous, and British in- 

 fluence predominant and welcome. He con- 

 sidered that the safest and strongest frontier 

 India could possibly have would be a belt of 

 independent frontier states, throughout which 

 the British name was honored and trusted, and 

 British subjects liked and respected ; by which 

 British advice was followed without suspicion, 

 and British word relied on without misgiving 

 in short, a belt of states whose chiefs and 

 people should have every interest and desire to 

 cooperate with British officers in preserving 

 peace on the frontier, developing their own 

 resources, and vindicating their title to an in- 

 dependence of which the British would be the 

 principal well-wishers and supporters. Look- 

 ing to recent events on the frontier, he did not 

 think this end unat- 

 tainable; but did not 

 believe it attainable by 

 means of military ex- 

 peditions, or, indeed, 

 anything except con- 

 stant friendly contact 

 with their less civilized 

 neighbors, and the 

 presence, with every- 

 day acts, in their midst 

 of earnest, upright, 

 English gentlemen. 



Various parts of In- 

 dia were visited by a 

 severe famine during 

 the year 1877, which 

 fully equaled that of 

 China in its severity, 

 although the relief 

 measures adopted by 

 the Supreme Govern- 

 ment of India tended 

 to deprive it of many 

 of those horrors which 

 attended the famine in 

 China. According to 

 a dispatch from the 

 Government of India to 

 the Secretary of State, 

 the distressed territory 

 in Bombay included an 



area of 54,000 square miles, with a population 

 of nearly 8,000,000. In Madras the distressed 

 districts were divided into two tracts, the 

 first consisting of Bellary, Kurnool, and Zud- 

 dapah, which was by far the most afflicted, as 

 in the southwest, northwest, and northeast the 

 monsoon had failed. The second tract com- 

 prised nine districts, namely : Kistna, Nellore, 

 Chingeeput, North Arcot, Salem, Madura, 

 Coimbatore, Tanjore, and Trichinopoly ; while 

 only eight districts were actually free from 

 famine in Madras. The total area affected in 

 Madras was stated at 84,700 square miles, with 

 a population of nearly 19,000,000. The Su- 

 preme Government indicated its policy in this 

 case in a dispatch to Sir Richard Temple, as f ol- 



