The latest accounts of the Bengal Famine are grave, and
what is worthy of note, the Viceroy's in tone are the gravest. The official telegram published on Tuesday begins, "More rain much required," and it is obvious that the authorities in India are rendered exceedingly anxious by the prospect of continued drought, with the consequences of which, if it be again severe, probably no effort which Government could make could adequately cope. According to the last official account, 2,190,000 persons received assistance from Government in the last week of April, and the "numbers were rising everywhere." The estimate for May was 2,550,000. The Timm' correspondent's telegram of yesterday was also ominous :—" According to mis- sionary reports," it said, "great numbers of Sonthals are fasting alternate days, and others eat only every third day. Gangs of starving people are passing along the trunk road to Calcutta from Behar." If the rain does not come soon and plentifully, the tragedy before us may prove to be of greater proportions than even the horrible annals of famine can as yet match.
