Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1874-01-31
The Famine in India.
Imminenos and Extent of the Danger.


Imminence and Extent OF the Danger.
The London Times devotes its lead
ing editorial to a vigorous article on the
famine in Bengal, decrying the red tape
system in vogue and urging the Yiceroy
to be guided by instinct rather than by
precedent and evidence. The editor
says:
"It is not possible TO read with any
attention the successive letters ami
kilograms from Calcutta without fear
full misgiying that we are on the eve of
terrible and irreparable disaster. In
very few weeks we may find ourselves
recording the irresistible progress of
such a famine as that in Orissa, and
that other nearer home, twenty-eight
years ago. All the figures point to such
conclusion. There appears to be such
distrust OF native statements, as
alarmist or interested, that the heads of
the government are devoting themselves
to the task of divesting them of exag-
geration. They who speak in behalf of
the cultivators seem wild in their terror,
while the proprietors, and with them
the mercantile class, seem more dis
posed to such an estimate of the i'm
pending dearth as would make it I'M
necessary to interfere with the regular
course of trade. The effect of the gov
eminent purchases for the relief works
has already been to raise the prices at
Calcutta, and to lower them in the dis
tricts threatened by famine.
"The population Immediately affect
ed by the drought and the conse-
quently bad harvest is nearly equal to
that of Great Britain. But there are
important differences between their
case and ours. They depend almost
entirely upon their crops-that is, upon
the rain from heaven. They have no
other industry or wealth to speak of,
and the whole constitution of their
society is agricultural. Being inland,
they cannot, as in our case, be reached
by hundred open and accessible ports
well able to receive and diffuse the pro-
duce of every food-producing country
in the world. Those twenty-five mil
lions are surrounded by other millions
wanting all the food they can grow,
and only less affected by the dearth
Northward lie the mountains North
west are provinces which can lend but
little help. All, or nearly all, depends
on what can be done from Lower Ben
gal. When all things are taken into
accountable existing store, the posi-
BILE aid from the Upper Provinces, and
the results of the Forthcoming winter
harvest, of which there are so many
conflicting estimates, but which at the
best will be but a fraction compared
with the harvest which has passed and
failed-it will still be necessary that
the distressed and jeopardized popula-
ton receive from Bengal more than
two thousand tons of rice day for the
whole period of the pressure.
That is upon O low calculation of
what is necessary to support life, and,
as the deficiency has been calculated at
four months, it follows that consider
ably more than 100000 tons of rice, or
rather grain, will be required, it must
be said, at the hands of the Anglo.
Indian Government. At recent date
only about rs, 900 tons, that is, about q
fortnights supply-had been stored fol
the relief works-hardly 1.-THE of the
whole believed to be necessary. It is
evident, then, that the work is only be-
gun, and that force will have to be APP.
piled to public opinion, and not less to
the energies and the resources of the
administration. England cannot beal
so great scandal as that which threat
ems her, and which certainly will be at
tached to us if she fails at this emer
gency nor will it give her credit that
she has faithfully stood to the inexor.
able law of political economy and free
trade" ..
To more clearly understand this ar.
ticle, it should be borne in mind thai
Bengal is threatened not only with 6
food famine, but with one of water
also. The Hooghly at Serampore il
November was as low as it had beer
in the hottest months of the year, anG
the tanks in its neighborhood were
threatening to dry up. A gentleman
writing to one of the Calcutta papers
says The scarcity of water attract,
much notice." This new form of dan
ger Sir G. Campbell appears to hav'
recognized by timely offer of loans t.
municipalities and landowners for tn
making of new and the deepening O
old wells, the cleaning out of tanks
and the improvement of other source