1839.] 



in periods of Famine. 



219 



private effort : then, not only if all these circumstances, but if anyone 

 exists, we have not, I am disposed to think, a foundation upon which 

 Dr. Smith's doctrine can be safely erected, and we must question its 

 applicability to this country. 



But wliilst this, with much of what has been advanced, may be admit- 

 ted, yet the inference which would follow, that Government inter- 

 ference is called for, may not be conceded ; for it will perhaps still be ar- 

 gued, that private exertion, if wholly unfettered, will be found the safest 

 and best means of supplying, eveji the greatest and most urgent wants of 

 the people. Or to use Dr. Smith's language " that the natural effort of 

 every individual to better his own condition, when suffered to exert 

 itself with freedom and security, is so powerful a principle, that it is 

 alone, and without any assistance capable of carrying on a society to 

 wealth and prosperity, and of surmounting a hundred obstructions with 

 which the folly of human laws too often encumbers its operations." Book 

 IV. chap. V. Digression, &c. There is so much force in tlds state- 

 ment, that if the fact did not stare us in the face, that these natural 

 efforts do not in any adequate measure now meet the case of famine in 

 this Presidency, I should not venture to advocate even the most cautious 

 Government interference ; although I think it demonstrable that the rea- 

 soning by which the doctrine of non-interference has been hitherto sup- 

 ported, is, so far as South India is concerned, untenable. But so long as 

 famine in this Presidency occasions any thing like the present fearful 

 mortality, and destruction of property, and so long as entire provinces are 

 desolated by a single season of severe drought ; it appears almost a moral 

 duty, before we rest satisfied with the present passive system, to institute 

 the fullest enquiry, whether there are not at the command of the Govern- 

 ment legitimate means of adding to the food of the country, and thereby 

 lessening the misery and ruin of such periods. I would therefore ask, 

 whether there are solid objections on general principles, to the 

 Government, in the exigency of famine, throwing additional supplies 

 into the market by the instrumentality of the grain merchants 

 themselves, by offering them facilities for their commerce, not accessible 

 to them at other times. In advances of Government capital, — in increased 

 means of transit, — in premiums on importation in the form of bounties, 

 or of return cargoes of Government salt ; or similar public aid, which 

 would not tend to supersede, but to stimulate their exertions. Nor am I 

 prepared to allow, that — if the Government went a step further, and im- 

 ported supplies of foreign grain at its own risk, not to be brought iyiio the 

 market for sale to compete with the grain merchant, but to be dealt out 

 a.s rations to the people driven by extreme poverty to work on the roads, 



