126 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [August i, i8i 7 . 
Sir Johu Gorst's reply to a question about Bengal 
Excise to the effect that regulating drink is not the 
same as stimulating it, is the text on which Sir Ai red 
Lyall enlarges in his orders on the Excise Report 
of these Provinces for the past year. The year in 
point of income proved one of the best on record, 
and the Government is at some pains to show that 
the increase in revenue is not the result of additional 
encouragement or facilities for drinking given to the 
people. " The year was one of agricultural prosperity : 
it was held to be auspicious for Hindu marriages." 
These circumstances made it probable that there 
would be a considerably increased consumption of 
liquor, and the rise in the excise revenue simply in- 
dicated that " licit liquor was in the main consumed." 
This expression draws attention to a fact that is over- 
looked by the good people in England who choose 
to make the excise arrangements of India a subject 
for May meetings and other popular gatherings. In 
spite of the vigilance of excisemen, there can be no 
doubt that a very conside rable amount of illicit manu- 
facture of liquor is still carried on, and that the 
gallonage recorded in the official reports does not 
represent all that is drunk by the people. The popular 
drink in rural tracts can be made so simply that 
a lynx-eyed police need not know that anything was 
going on. The flowers of the mhowa tree are steeped 
for a week or ten days in a gharra of water until 
they ferment. The gharra then has only to be boiled 
over a fire of sticks, and the resultant spirit con- 
veyed by means of a bamboo tube into another 
receptacle, and the poor man has his drink. It 
is weak and ill-flavoured to our notions, but it 
has been the drink of the lower orders in Hindu- 
stan since the mhowa tree first threw its protecting 
shade over the sultry land, and blossomed iuto graceful 
clusters of flowers. The theory of the Exeter Hall 
busybodies is that drink was unknown in Inlia until 
British rule, and that drunkenness is the product of 
our excise laws. The modicum of truth thit under- 
lies these assertions is lost in their general absurdity. 
Certain classes have undoubtedly acquired under 
British influences a taste for strong drink. The Bengali 
Babu is said to be often addicted to rum and bad 
brandy, and native princes fall victims to more 
seductive stimulants. It is very deplorable that 
this should be so, and we may well be ashamed 
that intemperance so often accompanies English 
literature and thn English language on their civilising 
mission in the East. But this unfortunate result is 
certainly unpremeditated on the part of the Govern- 
ment, and has in no way been fostered by its excise 
arrangements. To associate the habit of drink which 
the Bengali has acquired along with his acquisition 
of the English tongue and English dress, with the laws 
by which country-liquor and opium are placed under 
heavy restrictions, is to confound two things which 
have no connection with each other. The clamour 
against the outstills of Bengal has this justification, 
that the outstill system made liquor cheaper than it 
was under the distillery system. But under the out- 
still system drink was still dearer than it would be 
were there no excise law at all. To say, therefore, 
that the Bengal Government by means of out- 
stills was ruining the morals of a naturally tem- 
perate race, was aa absurd exaggeration of facts. 
The outstills led to more drinking than the alter 
native system because they made liquor cheaper 
than it was before. But the instinct for drink was 
already in the people, and our excise arrangements 
have simply repressed it. To use a familiar metaphor, 
the Government had long pressed the spring down. It 
partially removed the pressure ; the spring flew up ; 
and good folks were amazed to fkd how large a section 
of the community had been involuntarily kept sober 
by the repressive laws of the past. 
This point is hItowjIv brought out in Sir AlfPe 1 
Lyall's orders, to which wj have already referred. 
Alter citing some figure* indicative of the general 
sobriety of the people and commenting ou the alleged 
inaccuracy of the census siatis'lcs, he expresses his 
belief that "the demoralisation som j ,t'mos alleged t; 
have been occasioned iu Briiish India by the excise 
laws of recent years is not to be found in any appreci- 
able degree in th^si Proviucis." The general effect of 
the excise laws, it is adlei, has beau iso diminish the 
facilities for obtaining such stimulants, and " to place 
frequent indulgence iu them beyond the reach ot the 
poor man's pocket." Sir Alfred Lyall considers that 
the flourishing state of the excise revenue, despite 
these repressive measures, argues the existence of a 
strong innate craving for some stimulant among the 
poorer classes. The solution of the problem, he philo- 
sophically suggests, possibly lies in the spread of tea 
driuking. This, if not an absolutely novel idea, is at 
least unfamiliar to Indian excise moralists. Sir Alfred 
Lyall is entitled to the credit of hiving first put it 
forward prominently as an administrative question. 
He first states the preseut effect of the excise law 
with uncompromising directness and plainness of lan- 
guage. " Were there no excise law, the villager of the 
central and eastern districts of the Province would 
certainly be able to buy the w^ak mahua liquor 
— which he prefers, and which in his opinion 
is the best specific against fever and ague in 
malarious tracts — for less than two annas the bottle. 
Under the present excise law he cannot buy this quan- 
tity for less than eight annas, and often his to walk 
long distances to obtain it. Nevertheless, among 
certain classes of the population, the craving for 
some sort of stimulant is too strong for excise re- 
gulations." The taste for alcoholic liquors and in- 
toxicating drugs seems "ingrained among certain 
large sections of the labouring community." If 
these words could be read to an Exeter Hall audi- 
ence, some of the listeners might carry home a 
grain of common sense. Sir Alfred Lyall then states 
the reasons which induce him to regard the problem 
capable of solution by means of tea. " In other 
Eastern countries these classes are large consumers 
of tea and coffee, and it may ba conjectured that 
had these produsts been ndigenous, to, or long cult- 
ivated iu, the Indian pininsuU, they would by this 
time have assumed as important a place in the dom- 
estic economy of Indian households as they occupy 
in China, Tibet, or Turkistan. It is upon these con- 
siderations that the North- Western Provinces Gov- 
ernment have endeavoured to promote, by special 
measures, both the sale of dry tea in small packets 
in th^ larger towns an 1 cities of the North-Western 
Provinces and Oudh, and the establishment of tea- 
shops on the model of European coffee-houses. 
Some of the larger municipalities hive interested 
themselves in the experiment, and the Department 
of Agriculture and Commerce has been utilised to 
procure good tea at wnolesile rates for the retail 
vendors. Sir Alfred Lyall observes with much in- 
terest the recent formation of an Association in 
Calcutta, which proposes to take the question up 
seriously and systematically in Bengal and in 
Upper India, and he is prepared to co-operate 
heartily with it should the Association see its way 
to extend its operations to any districts in these Pro- 
vinces. The subject at first sight seems remote from 
the administration of Indian excise ; but the experi- 
ence of European countries has shown that it has 
in reality an essential connection with it." 
If there be anything in the suggestion, it would 
do good in more ways than one. Not only would 
it improve the habits of the lower classes and add to 
their pleasures, but it would open up a vast future 
to the Indian tea grower. This aspect is too 
obvious to Jneed discussion. We prefer to dwell 
on the more imaginative bearings of the suggestion. 
The introduc'ion of tea into Europe has unquestion- 
ably been o .e of the influences whic i have rerinod 
society and given woman a higher place in it. With- 
out tea Dr. Johnson's t.ilk would have been clipped 
an I stunted, and his friendships with wise and 
good womea less assurod. Thi p let's lines describe 
the change in m idem manners with inimitable grace— 
Nowstir the ftro, an I ulos ) th : sil l' teri fast, 
Let fall the curbiins, wheel the sofa round, 
And, whili the bubbling aud loud-hissing um 
Throws up a steamy column ; aud the cups, 
That cheer but not inebriate, wait on each, 
So lot us welcome poacaful evening in. 
