The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-11-13

The Famine In India.
From the Tribune.
An appalling calamity has lately befallcn Il
portion of British India. Famine has been
making fearful ravages in the Bengal Presi-
dency, and in the Madras Presidency the dis.
tress from the same cause is described as only
less terrible than that in Bengal. Residents on
the spot trustworthy witnesses-in endeavor-
ing'to give some idea of the extent of the Gala.
nifty, depict scenes of the most narrowing
character. When the famine was at its height,
the starving poor, we are told, crowded Into the
streets of Calcutta and it was estimated that no
fewer than 10000 TO %, 900 starving people were
wandering about the capital At Mullick's
Chat, where the Bombay merchants raised
fund and distributed lood there we're at one
time 1000 tamishlng applicants crowded UP.
They were described as placed in order upon
an open space waiting for the distribution
"On one side nearly 1000 Hindoos, each with leaf
platter before him, were scattered on the wet
ground, hastily paraking Of the scanty dole
they received. On the other side were thousands
of furnishing Mussuimans ranged in like manner,
and watching with silent and greedy eager.
ness the meal of their Hndoo brethren,
and counting with bitter longings the minutes
TIL their turn should come. Under the shelter
OF the Chat crowded the women girls and
children, Outside the gates were hundreds and
hundreds who had lost their chance till the next
distribution. But over all a horrible dead
silence. No chattering or converse, hardly a
sound, excepting when at intervals some wretch
threw up his arms with an ejaculation to
Heaven wrnng from him by the unappeasable
pangs of hunger" More than this, officials
wrote home descriptions of meeting dead bodies
in every mornings ride-bodies lying in the
road, with the village dogs eating them at lei
sure. Calcutta journal stated that in Bala-
sore, having population of $4,000, the deaths
amounted 10 3OO day; and, or the Government
demanding OF its officials report against the
libel, the Collector OF the District replied that
on the 9th August he had 245 deaths In the city.
on the 8th, l5l, and tor the week ending the 9th,
l26 day, the bodies sometimes remaining
unburled for three days. The province
OF Orlssa suffered the most severely. one
paper declaring that 400, 900 souls have persisted
in maritime Orlssa alone Indeed, telegram
from Inoia announces that halt the popula-
tion OF Orissa have perished in the famine-that
ls, fully two millions and halt of people An
English journal remarks:-''I is impossible in
conceivable, incredible that so transcendental a
horror, one so utterly beyond all precedent so
utterly beyond lmagnotion. should actually
have occurred;" yet the same journal expresses
serious misgivlngs, that when the truth shall
nave been fully ascertained, it will be found
that the estimate here given of the desolatlon
wrought by the famine WAS not, after all,
greatly exaggerated. 1t is thus it puts the mat
ter:-"Two millions and half of people twice
the population OF Denmark or of Greece, eight
dead of hunger. Two millions and 4
half OF men, and women, and babies, our sub.
iects, dead of HUNGER! Why, we are Christians,
and u put one woman so dies, move the whole
force OF tue state to secure inquiry and relief
rom horror which chills the warm comfort of
our wealth. 1t is lie, incredible and absurd.n
"And yet-and yet-and yet" il significantly
adds, proceeding to adduce facts and figures cal
culated to show that, after all, the estimate
might be nearer the truth than the British
people imagine, or would be Wiling TO admit
For truly this famine-this fearful desolatrng
calamity-involVes terrible reproach to the
Government of British India. India rs ruled by
the English on virtually despotic principles the
despohsm being qualified professedly by the
''paternap element. The Government eXer-
cises, in fact abs Jlute power over the natives
1t has vast revenue at command. 1t employs
host of officials in every district. II Is backed
by an immense military force. Ii rules as il
pleases, without regard to the prejudices or the
wishes of ITS subjects. 1t is all-powerful in its
sphere; and being so, an occurrence like this
famine cannot be regarded otherwise than as a
deep national disgrace. The famine might have
been tOreseen and provided against. In the dis |
trict where the suffering and the mortality was |
greatest, the crops, we are informed, failed |
almost entirely for three successive years. In |
1864 cyclone worked terrible ravages, driving |
masses of sand over the rice plains; the crops |
of 1865 were sworse than those OF the year |
before; and this year there have been none, |
an inunoation having swept away the |
last chance of the wretched cultvators. Yet |
the Government at the time the calamity fell |
upon the country was busymg itself with |
measures for increasing taxation, and drawing |
larger rentals from the natives; and while the |
famine was doing its work Of death, depopuat-
ing whole districts, the Governor General of |
India and the Lieutenaut-General OF Bengal, IL
seems, were in the pleasant hills of the Hima.
layas, enjoying the cool climate, and BORDERING
stately ceremonials." And IT Is thus that British
India is ruled England, we are told nova
days. holds india by moral tenure, aud for
moral purposes and by this argument 1t is
attempted TO justify what would otherwise be
utterly indefensible as monstrous usurpat1on.
But If the sad history of the famine be an Illus
tration OF the way in which the country Is gov
erDed, we fear the rulers of British India have
yet to learn what their responsibilities are to
the people Of one of the most splendid regions
of Gods earth.