The Express.
London, England, 1866-09-20 00:00:00

LATEST INTELLIGENCE.

THE FAMINE IN INDIA.

We have to-day received advice. from Calcutta
to August 20.
A telegram of the 20th ult. in the Bombay Times
says :—"The total sum collected in Calcutta for
the relief of the prevailing famine is 70,000 rs.
Accommodation is required for 2,003 ilia' people,
1,000 of whom already fill the hospitals. The
native community of Calcutta have agreed to feed
8,003 of the distressed for two months, but funds
will have to be provided to proteot the reitt. The
committee makes a general appeal to the public ;
but is thankful to Bombay for the contributions
already there collected."
The Bombay Times of August 23, commenting
upon the latest accounts, says :
. . _ .

The alarming proportions assumed by the &Orem in
Bengal show how miserably government failed to apprs-
hood the true state of affairs when, time after time, official
intimation was given that the resources at the disposal of
the Board of Revenue were amply sufficient to provide
for the famine-stricken districts. As early as October
last, the parched appearance presented by rice fields and
plains which at that season of the year used to smile with
ripening grain, excited in various quarters serious appre-
hensions of an approaching famine. In December it
was generally known that the crops in Orissa, usually a
grain porting country, were ell but a total failure ; and
yet the revenue officials who ought to have been the first
to know the actual state of the clistrlct seem not to have
realised the extent of the misfortune. Thus the circle was
allowed to widen, and now the cry of distress ascends
even from Chumparun in the extreme north-west of Bengal
as far as Beller,' in Madras. For a time the country
districts only suffered, as the ignorance and want of
enterprise, characteristic of the rural Hindoo, at fiat led
many to lie down in dumb despair ; but now that a chance
of relief even at a great distanoe has been offered, and
their constitutional apathy overcome, hundreds of gaunt.
emaciated human forms are flocking daily into Calcutta ;
and few can predict how long the calamity may be limited
to famine, or how soon a raging pestilence may follow in
its train. In some placer, indeed, cholera has already
broken out, and the mortality has been very great. To
guard against this Let danger, the stars'ng multitudes are
being intercepted as much as possible at suitable localities
and centres of relief established in the suffering dia.,
tricta ; yet in spite of this the arrivals in Calcutta are said
to amount to as many as 200 a day, while in the city and
its suburbs not leas than from twenty to thirty thousand
are fed from the hand of charity alone. It is also calcu-
lated that in Pooree 1,543 persons are at present daily re-
lieved ; is Outtack, 1,960; Balasore, 16,994 ; Midnapore,
9,667 ; Meunbhoom, 1,900 ; Nuddea, 3,111; Gya, 1,609;
Serun, 5,609; and in Tirboot, 6,361. The measures of

relief spontaneously adopted by the inhabitants of Cal-
outta have been most extensive and well considered.
Many of the richer Habeas and certain European gentlemen
have joined in establishing untioduatros, or almshouses,
where hundreds of the destitute ars housed, clothed and
fed. The zeal and enthusiasm of the pollee and
municipal authorities, too, have been most praise-
worthy, and the measures organised have been
tolerably effective. An influential committee has been
form,d, with the commissioner of police at its head, whose
plan of relief is, to clothe and house the poor ; to provide
work for the ablebodied ; to feed all surplus paupers
whose wants may not be met by native amities ; to sup.
ply additional accommodation ; and to maintain a found-
ling hospital for the support of orphans whose parents may
be dead or hart iiiiiert:4 there. Subscript;nns to the
amount of rs. 20,000 have already ben receive'', end more
money is sure to pour in as the relief is extended.
ISome ra.10,000 have already been forwarded from Bom.
II bay ; and now that the local government there has ap-
pointed a committee and made an appeal to the public,
this sum will no doubt soon be doubled many times over.
In the meantime the fall of rain has been very general
throughout Bengal, and the early harvest has begun in
Cuttack, Midnapore, Nuddea and other districts, the
produce where sufficient seed had been sown being good,
and matters looking more bopefuL To induce agricul-
turists and labourers to return to the famine district',
aid is given them on the way, and public works,
canals, &a., are being proceeded with so as to eff.,rd
employment. His Excellency the Viceroy, in a re-
solution recently passed, stated that he has no ob-
jectiou to yet further aid being given at once to
push on with vigour the works of the Irrigation
Canal which is being executed along the Oolooabarial and
Midnapore road, provided the labour of the sufferers from
the famine is alone employed. Yet great disappointment
is just now felt, because of its being discovered that the
twenty 'Abe set aside by the supreme government at the
request of Sir Cecil Ileadon is not, as was supposed, to be
distributed in public relief, but that sum is merely to be
advanced for the purchase of rice that will be sold at cost
price in Orissa. It is hoped, however, that in six weeks
most of the distress will be over, and then it remains to
be seen what steps will be taken to prevent the return of
• like visitation. The appointment of a royal commission
to inquire into the causes of this famine might prove to be
• very useful measure.

In the Bombay Gazette we read :—" The govern-
ment of Bombay has appointed a committee to
obtain contributions for the relief of the famine
which prevails in some districts on the eastern side
of India, and which has driven about 15,000
starving men, women, and children into the city
of Calcutta. The position of Bombay, which has
formerly distinguished itself in works of public
charity, will prevent it from responding with
liberality to the appeal of government ; but in
other places throughout Western India which have
not suffered by the pecuniary misfortunes that
have p..ralysed Bombay a handsome contribution
ought to be provided. The great and protracted
fall in the price of cotton has produced as
severe a money famine in Bombay as there is a
food famine in Bengal. Trade is, for the time,
utterly suspended, and nothing but a rise in the
price of that staple on which Bombay has chosen
to stake its commercial existence will restore ether
confidence to the community, or briskness to
trade. Never, perhaps, in the annals of commerce
has a trading city been so completely prostrated
and stricken with calamity as Bombay. The
reason lies on the surface. The presidency has
neglected the cultivation of all its general articles
of produce which made up its export trade before
the cotton era. Bombay resolved to stand or
fall by cotton ; it has fallen ; and the fall has been
great."