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Famines in India. 
[October, 
Government, it would be hopeless to expert the full benefits 
of the necessary changes to be felt, as they have been in 
Europe, in practically rendering famines impossible, until 
the populations themselves are sufficiently advanced in 
moral and intellectual civilisation to appreciate the truths 
involved in these measures, and endowed with sufficient 
energy to carry them thoroughly into effeCt. It is only 
when all the known means for mitigating the effects of 
famines have been well established throughout the country 
- — or, in other words, when civilisation, as it exists in the 
Western Hemisphere, is finally and fully established in the 
East — that there can he any serious hope entertained that 
the calamitous visitations of famine, now so common in 
India, will cease to occur. 
The three principal measures to be adopted with a view 
to mitigate the effects of famines are — (i.) The provision of 
a complete system of communications throughout the 
country. (2.) Improvements in the system of agriculture 
generally. (3.) The construction of artificial irrigation 
works wherever they may be practicable. With regard to 
the first, viz., communications, there exist two rival plans, 
each of which has its advocates ; the one plan comprising 
railways as the chief arterial system of the country ; and 
the other, lines of water communication. It can hardly be 
necessary to say much upon this question. It is a faCt that 
the whole of India has never yet, within historic periods, 
been subjected to drought and famine throughout its length 
and breadth at one and the same time ; it already grows 
more food grain than is required for the supply of its popu- 
lations under ordinary circumstances, and it exports wheat 
largely to this country, as well as rice. At no time, it is 
believed, has there been an aCtual scarcity of food in the 
country, and it necessarily follows that suitable means of 
communication alone are necessary to enable the surplus 
produce of one district to be transported to another, where, 
by reason of drought or other causes, the supply may be 
deficient. In certain places, and under favourable condi- 
tions, no doubt grain — in common with all other bulky 
articles — may be more cheaply conveyed by water carriage 
than by railways ; and, wherever a never-failing supply of 
water can be relied upon, every encouragement should un- 
doubtedly be given to improve what may be styled the 
natural highways of the country, viz., its rivers, and in 
certain circumstances it may even be desirable to render 
irrigation canals suitable for navigation. Experience on 
this latter point, in India, does not support the supposition 
