It would appear to be certain that the famine in
Southern India is assuming grave proportions. It is stated that it extends from sea to sea, right across the Deccan ; that a million of persona are employed on the relief works ; that 13,000 destitute have crowded into Madras itself ; that the cattle are perish- ing, and that no improvement can be hoped for for six months. Wheat is being brought down rapidly from the North, and we do not understand that it is a failure of food, so much as a rise in its price beyond the means of the people which is apprehended. There is a singular absence of details upon the subject, the Government being un- willing to risk a popular outcry, but there is no doubt that a severe financial disaster, at all events, is impending. It was with a full knowledge of this risk that the silly pantomime just acted at Delhi was gone through. The feet of clay were drying under the golden image when it was set up.
