318 



A short Account of the 



[Oct. 



pay about 42 millions of pounds sterling or 40 shillings a head ; and 

 as the price of bread corn is there about six times as great as in India, 

 the tax paid by each individual in the Delta may be considered equi- 

 valent to 60 shillings in England, or half as much again as the peo- 

 ple there pay. In judging of the proportional degree in which these 

 sums must press upon the people of the two countries, two things must 

 be considered; first, that on watered lands in this country, the produce 

 is obtained at an expense and labour very far below that required in 

 England, leaving of course a larger proportion of the crop disposable 

 for the cultivators' profit and the expenses of the Government. But, on 

 the other hand, the difference in the state of the society in the two 

 countries, as respects mental cultivation in general, and the knowledge 

 of the arts in particular, is such, that upon the whole the people of 

 England could afford to give up a very much larger portion of the 

 produce of their labour, for the support of the Government, than those 

 of India. Indeed when it is considered that owing to the superior in- 

 telligence of the great body of the people, almost every operation is 

 executed with less waste of time, labour and materials, and that, by 

 the force of steam, of wind, of water and of horses, perhaps (in pro- 

 portion to the number of the people) not less than thirty times as much 

 power is in exercise in England as in this country ; and when to this is 

 added the consideration that, in the former, an almost incalculable quan- 

 tity of labour is avoided by the use of such machines as turnpike and 

 railroads, canals, &c, it will probably be pretty evident that the 

 proportion of the total power exerted by the community in India, 

 which goes to provide for the support of Government, is prodigi- 

 ously greater than the proportion in England. Of the produce of 

 Indian labour, a considerable portion is indeed daily transmitted 

 to England, and there employed in increasing the public stock of 

 productive machinery ; every native of India, at work in a paddy-field, 

 is raising food for so many individuals employed in making steam 

 engines, or laying railroads, in England. How desirable it is that he 

 should rather be supporting men employed in such works in this coun- 

 try ! And this could with the most perfect ease be accomplished, if the 

 Government would take up the capital of these servants on interest, 

 and expend it upon such undertakings as would be most conducive to 

 the comfort and prosperity of the Indian community. 



The materials from which this memorandum has been drawn up 

 have been taken from the records of the Tank Department, in the third 

 division, which the acting civil engineer has obligingly permitted to 

 be examined for that purpose. 



In connection with this annicut, a canal suited for traffic has been 

 completed about forty-five miles long. It leaves the Colleroon imme- 

 diately above the annicut, and enters the Yellaur at Porto Novo. The 



