The Sun.
London, England, 1866-09-22 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TlMES.—Painful as are the details of the letter
from our Calcutta correspondent which we published
yesterday, it is, on the whole, much more satisfactory
than that which we received by the previous mail.
The suffering caused by the famine is far too in-
tense and too wide-spread to be at once removed ;
but everywhere heroic exertions are being success-
fully made to mitigate it. We read, indeed, with
some surprise that Sir Cecil Beadon is still at Dar-
jeeling, nor does the Bengal Government appear to
have cancelled the singular policy which prompted
its refusal to encourage a public relief committee.
But, nevertheless, an influential committee has been
organised, and a public meeting has been held,
numerously attended by members of all classes.
Subscriptions have been sent in with the most praise-
worthy promptitude and liberality. Over £75,000
was raised within four days after time meeting, and it
is calculated that no less than " 20,000 starvelings
are now subsisting on charity daily in Calcutta."
Perhaps the most satisfactory feature in the account
of our correspondent is the change which has taken
place in the spirit of the native community, even in
the short time that has elapsed since the Calcutta
cyclone. It is a gratifying proof of the influence
exercised upon them by English opinion and ex-
ample that, in most favourable contrast to the heart-
less apathy which they then displayed, they have
now come generously to the rescue of their perish-
ing fellow-countrymen. But, after all, this, the
bright side of the picture, only serves to bring out
its dark side into still gloomier relief. The great-
ness of the evil is most clearly seen when we con-
sider how much misery, even in the face of all this
energy and benevolence, there yet remains to tell.
We read that even in Calcutta, where deaths from
starvation have, of course, been far less numerous
than in remote districts, where no human aid was
at hand, " the number of pauper bodies buried
at one ghaut alone rose from 50, at which it
stood last year, to 329' in the first nine days" of
August. The last weekly return from one little
station (Balasore) shows 703 deaths, and even this
fearful rate of mortality gives but au inadequate
notion of the actual state of affairs, fot we are fur-
ther informed that, if we " treble this number for
the many who become the food of the jackal and the
vulture in the lonely jungle or ditch, we shall not
go beyond the sad truth." One relief agent finds
people dying slowly of starvation " in the midst of
a crowded bazaar," in a village where it in " so com-
mon for eight or ten to die daily in the streets that
no one takes any notice." The horrors of pestilence
are now being added to those of starvation. The
Board of Revenue has thought it expedient to cease
to report deaths. A missionary writing from Cut-
tack describes the mortality from cholera and famine
combined as of " fearful magnitude, much greater
than has generally been supposed," and adds that
the province has still to tide over " four long dark
months." We should not thus dwell on these har-
rowing details if they did not convey a moral which
we feel cannot be brought with sufficient force before
the public and the Government of this country. We
only wish it were in our power to excite as much
sympathy here in England for the thousands who.
have been dying of starvation in Calcutta as would
be excited by the starvation of one London pauper.
To many of our readers, perhaps to all, who do not
know by experience the fatal difficulty of enlisting
the interest of Englishmen in Indian affairs, it may
sound like bitter mockery, but in all soberness and
honesty we can congratulate India upon the magni-
tude of the calamity by which she has just been
overtaken. It can scarcely fail to bring about at
last the resolution of what at present appears to us
well-nigh the most important of all Indian questions
—the supply of works of irrigation. It would almost
seem as if India could only attract, for any really
tan J
audi-
ence.
practical purpose, the attention of England by some
such device as Absalom used Nhen he se
corn-fields on fire by way of procuringv
It was the redeeming feature of the mutiny
that it gave England for once a warm and active
interest in her greatest dependency, and led to a
change of policy which has bestowed incalculable
benefits upon the whole Indian Empire. And we
are not without hopes that the awful calamity from
which India is now suffering may prove in the long
run to contain less of evil than of good. Many of
our readers are possibly not aware that in India
such famines as the present—although usually on a
far smaller scale—are of constant occurrence. One
season of drought may destroy the crop upon which
alone a whole province depends for sustenance.
The remedy for this is obvious. The crop can only
cease to be dependent on the rainfall when the farmer
has artificial stores of water to fall back upon in dry
seasons, and this dependence is further diminished
by increased facilities of transport and locomotion,
so that, as in highly-civilised countries, the scarcity
of one province may be corrected by the abundance
of another. At this moment the sufferings of Orissa
are greatly enhanced by the difficulty of landing
rice, in heavy weather, on her surf-beaten coast.
These two specifics—water and the means of transit
—are of such vital and paramount importance to
India, as her only protection against the chronic
curse of famine, that it is almost impossible to
understand how any civilised Administration could
have governed the country so long as we have
governed it without setting on foot some organised
Imperial scheme for providing them throughout its
length and breadth. But, inasmuch as the famines
have been partial and local, we have been content
with partial and local, when it was both our duty and
policy to employ Imperial remedies. On certain
parts of the English coast you see scattered here
and there short lines of railings, each of which
marks the spot where some unlucky wanderer has
fallen over the cliff. It is considered a work
of supererogation to anticipate future casualties
by running a railing along the whole lino of
precipice. And, as Colonel Baird Smith years ago
complained, this has been precisely oar irrigation
policy in India. Such a policy would be inexcus-
able, even if irrigation works were not remunerative.
A paternal Government, and one so superior to its
subjects in all the resources of civilisation as is that
of India, is bound by every principle of justice and
humanity to incur almost any expense rather than
leave the lives and property of the governed at the
.nercy of the first drought. But our Government
has not even this excuse. It has 'been shown over
and over again, by Sir A. Cotton and others, that
works of irrigation can be made to pay admirably.
The Madras Government has on this ground re-
peatedly urged their extensive prosecution. The
Madras Public Works Commission declared, so far
back as 1852, that money borrowed at 5 per cent.
and expended on irrigation might be made to yield
30,,40, 60, and even 100 per cent., and our readers
may remember that the suggestions of this commis-
sion were warmly supported in a :Minute by Sir W.
Denison, which we published about a year ago. Yet
the Government of India will neither raise large loans
itself nor encourage their being raised by private en-
terprise. This is the all-important moral of the pre-
sent Indian famine, and we trust that the public opi-
nion of this country will see that it is enforced. We
by no means advocate the constant interference of
an English Minister in Indian administration. We
would leave all questions of detail to be settled by
the local Governments. But the question of irriga-
tion is essentially one of those Imperial questions
with which it is the province of the Secretary of
State for India to deal. He can deal with it far more
easily and satisfactorily than it can be dealt with in
India. Indeed, the policy to be pursued is so simple,
yet so imperative, that it would have been adopted
long ago if the Indian Government were not a
bureaucracy overridden by reports. One engineer
differs from another, a board condemns both, and
Government snubs the board: - • There are so many
plans, and counterplans and minutes, and surveys
that it becomes impossible to choose any one, and
so nothing is done. Nor will anything.be done until
an English Minister takes the matter into his own
hands.

ANGLO-AMERICAN TIMES.—The Spectator has
an article on " A Game of Speculation in
Bombay," which enlarges on the subject touched
on by us a few weeks since. The circum-
stances are so extraordinary, the causes produc-
ing such improbable results, and " the example
so signal of the occasional prodigality with which
Fortune lavishes her favours, and the fearful mis-
use that may be made of them," that we return
to the subject. Bombay has become of that interest
to Americans that one dog might feel who lost his
bone and saw it in the mouth of another dog. It
would probably give little pain to the dog thus
deprived of what be considered to be his to know
that the other dog " came to grief " over the prize.
What had been good, wholesome food, the greedy
brute hashed and cooked into such a mess that he
is not likely to recover from the surfeit for many a
long day to come. The Spectator gives the follow-
ing figures, showing theincreased value of the export
in cotton caused by the American war :
Quantity. Value.
1860-61
1861-62
1862-63
1863-61
1801-65
The quantity, therefore, remained almost uniform,
but the value rose from some £7,000,000 sterling
to over £30,000,000. The use made of this un-
looked-for influx of wealth is the subject to
which we call attention. The spur given to in-
creased production produced no increase. Asiatic
apathy was proof against all inducement
to increased labour. Indeed we believe that
had the American war continued, and the sys-
tem inaugurated by that war been maintained, the
result would have been the decay of the trade. The
more the producer received the less was his neces-
sity to work, and in the Presidency town 'honest
labour became a mere farce, while.fortuueks were

made by a few shares in a reclamation scheme. It
was our misfortune to be in Bombay during the
speculative mania, and we write therefore of things
we saw. The Spectator tells the story of the
notorious "Back Bay Reclamation Scheme." This
project was no mere paper affair, but was carried
out vigorously, and is now in active progress. The
story we propose to tell bears to the Back Bay un-
dertaking the proportion that a scheme to bridge
the Atlantic would bear to one to bridge the Eng-
lish Channel. There was in practice in Bombay a
certain worthy little doctor, whose patients chiefly
consisted of the families of wealthy native gentle-
men. He had the entrée of their houses, and ac-
quired over the inmates a considerable influence-
When Bombay ran wild with speculation, these
natives became influential promoters of the various
undortakings projected. The doctor found much
more profitable occupation in devising plans than in
prescribing physic, and the names of his native
friends were a tower of strength. In an incredibly
short time the medical practitioner became one of
the most influential men in the Presidency. This
gentleman was surrounded by a crowd of humble
suppliants, pressing for the smallest share in the al-
lotments. Like Mr. Hudson during the railway
mania, he became the figure on which eager
eyes were fixei, and towards whom greedY
hands were outstretched. Wherever his fa-
vour fell fortune followed. Reclamation%
Financialinstitutions, grew at once into full-blown
companies when launched by him, and assured a
market value of four or five times the price of the
share. Encouraged by such success, the doctor—
who had a mild idea of what finance meant—pro-
jected schemes whose magnitude caught the excited
imagination of the " Ducks," as the inhabitants of
Bombay are termed in India, till the grandeur of
his conceptions culminated in an undertaking which
threw all others into the shade. This was no less than
the erection of a splendid city a short distance from
Bombay, whose towers and esplanades were to arise
from what now are the waters of an angry sea.
The island of Bombay is a long narrow projection
near the mainland, forming on one side a fine har-
bour, and on the other shallow, shelving, false
bays. That which lies between the native town and
the fort—the head-quarters of business—is termed
Beck Bay. A rocky height runs into the sea, sepa-
rating Back Bay from another indentation, termed
" Breach Candy." All the shore on the harbour
side had already been allotted to Reclamation
Companies, and the Back Bay projectors appro-
priated the shore along that bay till it reached the
Island's Point at Calaba. The " Back Bay Com-
pany" offered to reclaim 1,500 acres of land, but
the Breach Candy could reclaim as many thousands.
A magnificent city might here be built. 'The
means by which the land was to be forme°.
—the plan of the town, the churches, schools,
barrack, long lines of streets—were all drawn
out on paper. The funds to effect this were
detailed, amounting to millions sterling, and
the whole submitted to the Government. A com-
mittee was appointed to investigate the merits of
contending schemes, for no sooner was the idea
broached than it was seized on by other projectors.
Our readers must remember that at the time these
superb ideas were discussed the Presidency city of
Bombay presented a most miserable aspect, and Ivas
in striking contrast to the dignified appearance and
palatial residences of Calcutta. Narrow dirty
streets, mean, ill-built houses, with scarcely an office
worthy of a " schroff," without an hotel fit to live
in, without a public conveyance fit to enter,
without
a wharf good enough for a village, without ware"
houses to store the cotton, bales lying in thousands
in the open air ; these people submitted to every
possible inconvenience while they indulged in thesepreposterous schemes. The old fortifications which
had given a character and a picturesque look to the
place had been demolished, the absurd appearance
of the business town remaining, while the reason
for the singular formation had been swept away
Something similar would be displayed at Ports-
mouth were the fortifications removed and the ditch
filled up. For weeks the committee sat considering
whose plan was to be finally adopted. Each pro-
jector had his crowd of eager supporters, and Bom-
bay was divided into parties loudly asserting the
superiority of that likely to be most profitable to
themselves. But while they haggled over their
magnificent idea, great events were occurring
in America—events whose importance to them
and their schemes scarcely entered into the
calculations of the " Ducks." That Sherman, s
march from Atalanta to the sea—that- a battle
at Richmond—would dispel a delusion in Bow;
bay appeared incredible. We were laughed
at for remarking that the gun which announced the
arrival of the English mail would carry a thrill to
our hearts if we stood in the doctor's position.
It was not, however, the steamer which fired the
shot that brought down in ruin these fairy castles,-
The first message by the Persian Gulf cable flashed
the intelligence of the approaching termination of
the American war. The electric wire carried to
Bombay an electric shock ! All took fright at the
same moment, all hurried together to sell their
shares, and the collapse was instantaneous. When the
news reached us we were not in Bombay, and the
first inquiry we made was about the worthy doctor'
The answer was significant ; it was in few words,
and carried a world of meaning—" He's up a very
tall tree." Fortunately the Breach Candy schell!e
,1
came too late to submerge any large sum, butit
remain an instructive lesson for generations of
future " Ducks," and a wonderful instance to the
existing race of the follies that beguiled them, an
where they rode when fortune placed them on horse
back.