ON THE KECK.NX PR0GEES3 OF AGRICULTUEE IN INDIA. 541 



several of these matters past experience alone would hardly jastify any- 

 sanguine expectation of great results. But let us trust that the sober 

 and serious spirit of resolve to try again with more system and with a 

 frank recognition of past mistakes — a spirit which, I thiuk, may be said 

 to characterise all these proceedings — may lead in course of time to 

 improvements which will, at all events, beat the past record. I will 

 venture to add a suggestion for the consideration of the authorities. 

 More than a decade has now elapsed since the submission of the Report of 

 the Famine Commission. It contained a vast number of detailed proposals. 

 I have not troubled you to-day with more than a very few of the leading 

 heads, but I may mention that the second part of the report, dealing with 

 measures of protection against fanaine and its prevention, suggests a great 

 number of administrative changes, many of which have since come under 

 separate consideration. I may instance the general organisation of the 

 superior official staff- — since the subject of the labours of the Public Service 

 Commission ; the relations of landlord and tenant ; the assessment and 

 collection of the land revenue ; the indebtedness of the landed classes ; the 

 policy of Government in regard to railways and canals, emigration, and 

 forest conservancy ; and the encouragement of diversity in occupations. 

 Would it not be a good employment for the next Agricultural Committee 

 assembled in India to refer one by one to all the proposals in the second 

 part of the report of the Famine Commission that were approved by the 

 Secretary of State, and to report, for the information of Government and 

 the public, what proposals have been carried out and in what manner, 

 what still remain for consideration, and whether any of these should be 

 taken up and put into execution now ? As a study of Indian agricultural 

 conditions and of the principal problems bearing upon agriculture in 

 India, I do not think it likely that the i-eport of the Famine Commissioners 

 will, in this generation, be excelled ; and I am sure all who have looked 

 into that most valuable record will agree with me that very full justice 

 should be done to the great knowledge of Indian life, character, physical 

 surroundings, and possibilities which it displays throughout. Sir Edward 

 Buck, in his address to the Committee of October last, was careful to 

 point out that the gradual establishment of a sound system of scientific 

 investigation and of education in connection with agriculture was the 

 next point to be taken up in the approved programme of the Famine 

 Commission. Without disputing that view or undervaluing in any way 

 the possibilities of important additions to knowledge and of improvement 

 which may result from the employment of a first-class expert, I merely 

 wish to draw attention to the wider measure of a general examination at 

 this date of the scheme of the Famine Commission considered as a whole. 

 The remarks made in this paper have necessarily been slight, and have 

 dealt much more with the conditions of Indian agriculture than with the 

 connection between Indian agriculture and British trade. I hope that 

 part of tbe subject will be more fully discussed by other speakers. If such 

 an examination of the viesvs of the Famine Commission as I have here 

 suggested be undertaken in India within the next two or three years, the 

 time spent on this paper will not, I ti'ust, prove to have been altogether 

 thrown away. 



I will, in conclusion, refer to one proposal made by the Famine Com- 

 missioners which, I think, might be revived with advantage. At present 

 members of the Indian Civil Service are forbidden to hold land in the 

 provinces where they are employed. No doubt it is undesirable that 



