The Sun.
London, England, 1866-11-08 00:00:00

THE BOMBAY MAIL.

We have advices by the arrival of the above mail
from Bombay to Oct. 13, and from Calcutta to
Oct. 7.

THE FAMINE.

Lord Cranbourne, Secretary of State for India,
had addressed to his Excellency the Governor-Gene-
ral in Council the following despatch, dated London,
Aug. 16, 1866 :

" I have considered in Council your letter dated
June 16, 1866, forwarding a resolution recorded by
you on the 14th idem, with accompanying telegrams
and documents on the subject of the distress pre-
vailing in Orissa and in some of the districts of Ben-
gal in consequence of the failure of the rice crops
from want of rain. The information thus placed
before me, being derived almost entirely from tele-
grams, is insufficient to enable me to form an ade-
quate opinion, either as to the extent of the pre-
vailing distress, or as to the measures taken under
orders of the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal for
relieving it. It is manifest, however, that a serious
scarcity of food, if not absolute famine, exists in
many of the districts affected by the drought, and
her Majesty's Government, deeply deploring the
consequent sufferings of the people, are most
anxious that the utmost liberality should be shown
by your Government in extending relief to the suf-
ferers. The measures sanctioned by your resolution
of the 14th June seem judicious, and have my ap-
proval, and I sanction the adoption of any further
measures you may deem necessary. I will in the
meantime only express my satisfaction that local
relief committees have been constituted in the suf-
fering districts, and my confidence that, should it
be thought desirable to form a central committee
for the collection of subscriptions at Calcutta, all
classes of the community ill cordially unite in car-
rying out the charitable work."

The limes of India comments on the despatch
thus :

" From this despatch it is evident that Lord Cran-
bourne, as well as so many in India, considered the
reports of the state of the suffering districts supplied
by the Board of Revenue to be eminently unsatis-
factory. Having only a string of vague tele-
grams before him, what could bis lordship do but
express his inability to form any adequate opinion
regarding the state of the country or the sufficiency
of the measures of relief adopted by the Ben-
gal Government, and express himself as most
anxious that the utmost liberality should be shown
by the Government of India in extending relief
to the sufferers, sanctioning, at the same time, the
adoption of any further measures that might be
deemed necessary. It will be readily understood
how his lordship, having allowed the Government of
India the utmost latitude in the exercise of liberality
to relieve the famine, and having received a reply
assuring him that the wants of the suffering dis-
tricts had been abundantly met, should hold the
opinion expressed by him to the deputation that
waited on him in London the other day, to the effect
" that further help was unnecessary." We have
had sent to us from Balasore a specimen of the rice
supplied to the starving population, and which a
Calcutta paper thus truthfully describes :—" A
worm-eaten cake, looking as if it were composed of
dust, chalk, and the sweeping of a rice gollah, a
nauseating agglomeration of nastiness which calls
up visions of cholera, and an extremity which
renders a man utterly reckless as to what he
eats, providing he eats something. It looks like
rice, coarse at the beginning, rained into a pulp,
then sun-dried and sun-baked, then re-washed
out, re-sun-dried and re-sun-baked until all sem-
blance of its original quality has been lost, and from
an article of food it has been converted into cholera,
visible and solidified, for convenience of admini-
stration."

The Calcutta Englishman fears that it was some-
what premature in stating, in its last summary, that
the famine might be considered at end :

" The distress, it admits, has certainly diminished
to a very great extent, owing to the organised sys-
tems of relief which have been established, and we
do not now hear of numbers dying on the roadside
and in the villages from starvation. The latest re-
ports from the out-stations, furnished by the Board
of Revenue, are dated the 15th of September, and
give a somewhat cheering account of the diminu-
tion of the distress and the prospects of the har-
vest. But the board did not seem to recognise
the terrible extent of the scourge until very lately.
The local Committee of Relief in Calcutta are
doing great good, but as they consider that it will
be necessary to keep up the pauper hospitals for six
months longer, they have suggested that further
subscriptions be earnestly invited from the public.
This being the state of things, it is distressing to
find that the Government here have led the Home
Government to believe that no further subscriptions
are required, and that the funds at the disposal of
the Relief Committee are ample. It cannot be
wondered at that incorrect and misleading informa-
tion should come from the Government of India,
with the Viceroy at Simla, and the Lieutenant-
Governor of Bengal at Darjeeling, seeing nothing
for themselves, but trusting for truth to official re-
ports. This famine has furnished a very bad but
practical commentary upon the advantages of the
heads of the Government, especially that of Bengal,
being away from the capital the greater part of the
year.

Great distress prevails in Dharwar, in the Bombay
Presidency, in consequence of the high price of grain.
Ten thousand famine-stricken natives are fed
daily at Balasore, yet numerous cases of death occur.
A Sepoy riot arising from the dearness of food has
occurred at Kamptee, in the Madras Presidency.
The troops were turned out and the disturbance was
soon quelled. The total amount at present contri-
buted by the Bombay Presidency for the relief of
the Bengal famine is .£15,000—X5,000 having been
collected since the departure of last mail. Reports
from all parts of the lower provinces of Bengal state
that the growing rice crop is one of the finest that
has been known for many years. Upon this subject
the Calcutta Englishman say The last few weeks
ws ta
n i n
th
of heavy rain, although they have told cruelly against
the low lying parts of Orissa, have ensured a noble
h e early
mostof
crop isalready g
the
aßengal.the In
r
ed
the ryots are satisfied with it. The, an
Baurrvd e
staple d
crop of
the western districts, however, is the winter rice,
and its abundance depends upon plentiful and pro-
tracted rains. This
year every river is flooded,
the tanks are swelling
above their embankments,
and if the showers were now to cease altogether,
there is enough water collected to
keep the fields
moist till December, when the harvest will be
reaped. While great losses have been sustained
from floods this year, great gains have also been de-
rived from them. The inundation that swept away
the rice stalks and railway bridges of East Beer-
bhoom filled a thousand tanks, and insured the suc-
cessful cultivation of many a square mile of arid
laterite in the west.'