People are dying in hundreds in Orissa because the Indian
Government will not keep its pledges. It has promised a per- petual settlement over and over again, but only granted one for thirty years; the last is just expiring, and the landlords are throw- ing the country out of cultivation lest Government should, accord- big to custom, raise the rent. They will not even use water brought to their doors, lest it should be made an excuse for in- creased taxation. The settled districts of Bengal are the richest in Asia, and have no famines, and their population, except on a single estate, refused to.rebel, knowing suite well that a native govern. ment would upset the settlement. Yet nothing can induce the old Indians in the Victoria Hotel to let any other peorinee share in the security of Bengalee tenure. The "revenue must be pro- tected," as if a rich people were harder to tax than a poor one.
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