The District of Bolarganj : its history and Statistics. By
H. Beveridge. (Triibner.)—It would probably be safe to conjecture that many of our readers do not know where Bakarganj is. It may assist them to say that the final syllable of the word is nothing less than the familiar Ganges, and also to tell them that the district includes the well- known Sundarbans, or " Sanderbunds," as they are more commonly called. Bakarganj is, in fact, a district of Eastern Bengal lying partly on the right bank and partly in the estuary of the Ganges. It is about as big as the two counties of Somerset and Devon, and it contains a population of nearly 2,000,000, giving an average of 444 to the square mile. It contributes about £150,000 to the revenue, and does not cost the Government more than one-fifth of that sum. Mr. Beveridge, whose work is a specimen of the intelligent labour which the Civil servants of the present day are so often found to bestow on the country in which they have been placed, has produced a valuable work. We cannot pre-, tend to judge of the value of the details which the author gives, but it is easy to see that the plan of the work is well conceived, and that though an apology is made for its incompleteness, it is really of an un- usually full and exhaustive character. In his concluding sentence Mr. Beveridge gives his opinion, that no more appointments should be made to the India Civil Service, as at present constituted. He is in favour of putting the administration more and more into the hands of natives, though he is not in favour of the heroic policy of abandoning India altogether, which he vigorously says would be " to act like a man- stealer who should kidnap a child and then abandon him in a tiger- jungle."
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