fact that, notwithstanding the heavy charges on account of famine, he was able to present a Budget which showed a surplus without imposing any new taxation. Although there had necessarily been great losses of land revenue in the districts afflicted by famine, the returns showed that the Punjab, Bengal and Madras had been doing well, that Assam had held its own, and that Burmah had enjoyed great prosperity. A comparison of the returns for the last four years for Salt, Customs, and the Post Office afforded proof of economic progress. Two important branches of agriculture, Indigo and Tea, were passing through a crisis, but it was hoped that this was only temporary. Indigo had suffered much from the competition of a foreign chemical product, and the large profits of old days are no longer possible. But it is believed that, by greater care and the use of improved methods in cultivation and manufacture, fair profits may still be made. The tea industry in India has always shown great fluctuations, and the present depression is attributed to overproduction. Of the manufacturing industries the most important, Cotton, was passing through a period of considerable depression, but this was the only one which was in any difficulty, and the increase in the number of important factories and workshops was most encouraging. Between 1895 and 1899 the number of cotton factories had risen from 350 to 586, that of engineering workshops and foundries, including railway workshops, from 72 to 82; that of jute mills and presses from 62 to 82; that of rice mills from 65 to 84; and that of sugar factories from 9 to 14. Notwithstanding the depression in the cotton industry, the value of the machinery imported during the last five years was some 75 lakhs in excess of the value of that imported during the previous quinquennial period-equivalent to an increase of nearly 30 per cent. But the most satisfactory figures were those relating to the production and export of coal, which rose from 222,380 tons in 1897 to 490,490 tons in 1900. Between 1895-6 and 1899-1900 the balance at the credit of depositors in Savings Banks and Provident Institutions increased by Rs. 1,88,111. It was difficult to draw any definite conclusion from the statistics relating to trade as apart from industries, but the fact that, notwithstanding the depression caused by the famine, the total value of imports and exports for the year 1899-1900 was only a little less than for 1898-9, and considerably in excess of the preceding years, was regarded as proof of commercial strength. The economic situation is regarded as on the whole good, and as affording many and satisfactory proofs of recuperative power.

In the course of the discussion on the Budget in the Legislative Council on March 27, Sir E. Collen, the Military Member of Council, explained that the question of putting the Army into a really efficient condition had been most thoroughly considered, in the first instance, by the military authorities, and they had submitted their proposals to the Government in March, 1900.

The initial expense was in round numbers 350 lakhs or 2,333,3331., of which 1,360,000l. was for the rearmament of the native Army and Volunteers, and it was intended that this should be completed in three years. There was to be an increase in the number of British officers for the Staff Corps, and twentysix British officers and twenty-one warrant officers, with a proper complement of subordinates, were to be added to the transport. The whole Transport Service had been so organised as to be capable of expansion when required, and provision had been made for many matters connected with mobilisation.

REMARKS.

The financial position of India as shown by the Budget presented by Sir Edward Law would appear to be briefly this: the year 1900-1, though ending with an apparent surplus of more than 1,500,000l., would have ended with a serious deficit but for wholly fortuitous savings in the military expenditure and the raising of 3,000,000l. by a loan. But this deficit was caused entirely by the enormous cost of the famine, amounting to over 5,000,000l. sterling. Had there been no famine, or only a slight one, the revenue would have been more than sufficient to meet all ordinary expenditure. For 1901-2 it was anticipated that without imposing fresh taxation the revenue would be sufficient, not only to meet ordinary charges, but also to a great extent to repair the damage caused by the famine last year, to meet a greatly reduced charge for famine this year, and to provide some 2,000,000l. sterling for improving the efficiency of the Army. Since Sir Edward Law presented his Budget the monsoon has come and gone-it cannot be said to have been a good one; parts of the country have had good rain, but in those parts which required it most, the Central Provinces, Rajputana, the northern parts of Bombay and Gujerat and the south-east of the Punjab, there has been a serious failure. It seems probable that the famine charges during the current year will exceed those entered in the Budget; but Sir E. Law's opinion that the economic condition of the country, as a whole, is sound, and that general improvement may be looked for, would appear to be well-founded, and it is not likely that the year will close with a deficit.

THE FAMINE.

The famine cannot be said to have ceased. As remarked in reviewing the Budget, the monsoon failed in those parts of the country where rain was most required, and towards the end of the year relief works had to be opened there. As yet the distress is not very severe. Official figures showed that in the week ending Dec. 28 the number of persons on relief works (with their dependants) was 104,391, and the total of those receiving direct or

indirect assistance was 140,143. But the winter rains appear to be holding off, and if they fail altogether the result will be very serious indeed. A petition bearing many influential names is being prepared for presentation to the Secretary of State for India, asking for the appointment of a Commission to inquire into the causes of famine and the means of preventing it. No doubt the movement is well meant, but it is difficult to see how it can result in any practical good. It is perfectly obvious that the cause of famine in India is the failure of rain at the proper season. When the monsoon is good not only do the coast lines on either side of India get a good supply of rain, but the two currents from the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean meet together in the centre of India, and in united strength pass through Rajputana and the southern parts of the North-West Provinces and the Punjab. When the monsoon is weak or irregular these tracts suffer, and should the monsoon fail for a series of years in succession they would be reduced to uninhabitable deserts, like those already existing in some parts of India and many parts of Asia. Whether canals, tanks or wells can be dug with any real advantage in any particular tract is a question, not for a Commission, but for trained engineers with local knowledge. To attempt to combat the forces of Nature with such weapons is much like a child attempting to keep back the sea by building a fortification of sand.

The following are the official figures as to the numbers of persons receiving direct or indirect relief at different periods of 1901:

The famine, it should be understood, has been practically confined to the Bombay Presidency (British districts and native States), Baroda, Hyderabad and (though in a slight degree) the Central Indian States. The figures embraced in the official returns for Madras and other parts of India were never at all considerable. Near the end of the year, however, figuresthough quite small-began to appear for the Punjab and the Rajputana States, the return for the week ending December 28 giving 2,500 and 1,376 under those headings respectively.

Z

THE PLAGUE.

In regard to the plague the year 1901 has been the gloomiest since the outbreak of that fell malady in 1896-7. The returns of mortality from it in 1900 seemed to encourage the hope that in diffusive power, if not in the virulence of its onslaught on those actually attacked by it, the disease was wearing itself out. In the Bombay Presidency, where the plague deaths in 1898 and 1899 had reached, in round numbers, 104,000 and 117,000 respectively, they fell in 1900 to 38,000. But though the first weeks of 1901 offered no indications of a serious recrudescence of the plague, February had not begun before the mortality returns showed an ominous upward tendency. In March they were over 2,000 a week, and though a slight decline followed, it was only illusory. In August the plague deaths in the Bombay Presidency were above 13,000, and in October they passed 31,000 and came within little more than 7,000 of the entire mortality from the same disease in 1900. For December the figure was 22,100, and the whole year showed a total of 155,000. In Bombay City the plague deaths were nearly 19,000, and other large quotas of mortality from that cause-ranging between 23,000 and 32,000-were furnished by Kolhapur, Sattara, Dharwar and Belgaum.

The development of plague mortality in some other parts of India was only little less serious. Calcutta showed a slight decline-from 8,300 in 1900 to 7,800 in 1901; but the rise in the case of several Bengal districts was such that, for the Presidency as a whole, the total had more than doubledrising from 35,800 to 77,900. The figures for the North-West Provinces and the Punjab rose from about 100 and 500 respectively to 8,100 and 15,200, and the total plague mortality outside the Bombay Presidency increased from 53,000 to 117,000.

BURMAH.

The Viceroy's autumn tour consisted of a visit to Burmah, and was made by land by way of Assam and Manipur; he reached the frontier on November 21, and held a durbar of the Shan chiefs at Mandalay on November 26 and at Lashio on December 2; he gave them some excellent advice, but the most important speech was one made a little later, in which he announced his decision that the railway was not to be extended to the Chinese frontier or to Bengal by way of Assam. His Excellency continued his tour to Rangoon, and from there returned to Calcutta by sea.

III. INDIAN FEUDATORY STATES.

NEPAL.

Sir Bir Shumsher, who had been Prime Minister since 1887 and was a really good ruler, died suddenly, though not quite unexpectedly, last April. He was peacefully succeeded by his brother, General Deb Shumsher, but in June another brother, Chundra Shumsher, managed to arrest Deb, and with the King's (Dhiraj's) sanction imprisoned him and proclaimed himself Prime Minister. The revolution is said to have been a bloodless one; if so, it is the first one which has been so managed in Nepal. The ostensible reason for Maharajah Deb Shumsher's deposition was that he was introducing changes into the government of the country which were objectionable to the principal persons in the State; but the real cause of it was no doubt merely Chundra Shumsher's desire to supplant his brother, and it is not likely that any change will result, either in the internal or external policy of Nepal. Towards the end of the year it was reported that Maharajah Deb Shumsher had escaped from Dhumkota, where he was a state prisoner, into Darjiling. It seems probable that we are not yet at an end of revolutions in Nepal.

PATIALA.

The late Maharajah died in November, 1900. He has been succeeded by his son, Bhupendur Singh, a boy of about ten years of age, who was installed on the gadi by the LieutenantGovernor of the Punjab in October last. It has been decided that the new Maharajah will have an English tutor until he is fourteen, and he will then complete his studies at the Aitchison Chiefs' College at Lahore. A Council of Regency, composed of Sirdar Gurmukh Singh, Khalifah Sayyid Muhammed Hussein and Lala Bhagwan Das, has been formed for carrying on the administration, but a British officer, Major Dunlop Smith, C.I.E., has been placed in charge of all the Phulkian States, which will still remain under the LieutenantGovernor of the Punjab. An assessment of the Land Revenue will be carried out under another British officer, Captain Popham Young.

KAPURTHALA.

The State has sustained a great loss in the death of Sirdar Bhagat Singh, who died on October 23. He had rendered faithful service for thirty years, rising through various important offices to that of Minister in 1897. Not long ago he was appointed by Sir Mackworth Young to a seat in the Legislative Council of the Punjab.