New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1866-11-12
THE FAMINE IN INDIA.

THE FAMINE IN INDIA.
An appalling calamity has lately befallen portion
of British India. Famine has been making fearful
rayages in the Bengal Presidency and in the Madras
Presidency the distress from the same cause is
described as only less terrible than that in Bengal.
Residents on the spot-trustworthy witnesses-n
endeayoring to give some idea of the extent oil the
calamity, depict scenes Of the most narrowing char
acter When the famine at its hight, the stary-
ing poor we are told, crowded into the streets oil
Calcutta, and il was estimated that no fewer than
90 900 to 600 starving people we're wandering about
the capital At Mullick's Chat, where the Bombay
merchants raised fund and distributed food, there
was at one time 1000 furnishing applicants
crowded up. They were described as placed in order
upon an open space waiting for the distribution ION
one side nearly 900 Hndoos each with leaf platter
before him. were scattered the wet ground, hastily
partaking of the scsnty dole they received On the
other side were thousands of Vanishing Musselmans
ranged in like manner and watching with silent aud
greedy eagerness the meal Of their Hndoo brethren,
and counting with bitter longings the minutes till
their turn should come. Under the shelter OF the
Chat crowded the women. girls and children, Ont
aide the gates were hundreds and hundreds who bad
lost their chance till the next distribution But over
all a horrible dead silence No chattering or con-
verse, hardly a sound, excepting when at inter
walls some wretch threw up his arms with an
ejaculation to Heaven, wrung from him
by the unappeasable pang5 of hunger" More than
this officials wrote homo descriptions Of meeting dead
bodies in every mornings rdo-bodies lying in the
road, with the village dogs eating them at leisure.
Calcutta journal stated that in Balasore, having
A. =. tad m n
day, aud on the Government demanding of its officials
report against the libel, the Collector OF the District
replied that on the 5th August he had 245 deaths in
the city, the 9th. I5l and for the week ending the
9th I26 day the bodies sometimes remaining unburied
for three days. The province OF Orssa suffered the
most severely, paper declaring that 100000 souls
have persisted in maritime Onssa alone. Indeed,
telegram from India that half the popula
tionof Orissa have persisted In the amne-thats fully
two millions and half Of people An English jour
nal remarks; It is impossible inconceivable iucred'
lille that SO transcendental horror one utterly be-
You'd all precedent so utterly beyond imagination,
should actually have occurred; yet the same journal
expresses serious msgvngs that when the truth shall
have been fully ascertained it will be found that the
estimate here gwen Of the desolation wrought by
the famine was not, after ALL greatly exaggerated. 1t
is thus it puts the matter: 1.-TWO millions and a
half of people twice the population of Denmark
or Of Greece, eight Suflolks, six Hampshires, five
siIths Of Scotland, dead of hunger. Two
millions and half of men. and women and babies
our subjects dead of hunger Why we are Chris
tisns and If but one woman so dies move the whole
force of the State TO inquiry and relief from
horror which chils the warm comfort Of our wealth.
II is lie incredible and absurd And yet-and
yet-and yet" it significantly adds, proceeding to
adduce facts and figures calculated to show that,
after ALL the estimate might be nearer the truth than
the British people imagine, or would be willing to
admit
For truly this famine-this fearful, desolating ca
amity-involyes a terrible reproach to the Govern
ment Of British India India is ruled by the English
on virtually dcspotic principles, the despOtsm being
qualified professeHy by the "paternal" element. The
Government exercises in fact absolute power over the
natives 1t has avas revenue at command. 1t employs
host Of officials in every district. II is backed by an
immense military force II rules as It peases without
regard to the prejudces the wishes OF its subjects
II is all powerful in its spheres and being
renee like this famine cannot be regarded otherwise
than as q deep national disgrace. The famine might
have been foreseen and provided against In the dis
trict where the suffering and the mortality was great
est the crops We informed failed almost entirely
for three successive years In le64 cyclone worked
terrible ravages driving masses Of sand over the rice
plains; the crops Of 1866 were worse than those of
the year before; and this year there have been
none, an inundstion having swept away the
last chance Of the wretched eultivators. Yet
the Government at the time the calamity
fell upon the country was busying itself
with measures for increasing taxation and drawing
larger rentals from the natives; and while the famine
doing its work OF death, depopulating whole dis
trcts the Governor General of India and the Lieuten
antGenera of Bengal, il seems, in the pleasant
bills ofthe HimOayas, enjoying the cool climate, and
ordering stately ceremonias." And il is thus that
British India is ruled England, We are told nowa-
days, holds India by moral tenure, and for moral
purposes; and by this argument 10 is attempted to just
ily what would otherwise be utterly inaefensibe as
monstrops usupation But if the sad history Of the
famine be an illustration Of the way in which the
country is governed, We fear the rulers Of British
India have yet to learn what their responsibilities
to the people of one of the most splendid regions of
Gods earth.
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If the electors of the Twenty first Ward, prospect