There was a long and serious debate in the Commons
on Tuesday on the Indian famine. Nominally the question was whether the British people should offer the Indian Treasury a grant-in-aid, but really it was a dispute whether the Government of India did or did not cause famines. 'Sir W. Wedderburn advised a recurrence to Joseph's plan of storing grain, while Mr. S. Smith said the cause was the neglect a irrigation, and over-taxation of the ryots. Sir H. Fowler ancl'Loi'd George Hamilton easily disposed of Sir W. Wedderburn's advice, showing that the best kind of storage was quick communication with prosperous districts, and, less easily, of Mr. S. Smith's. Irrigation, it is true, is not possible everywhere, and where it is, is less useful than railways because it develops mouths rather faster than meat ; but they affirmed the lightness of British taxation rather too confidently. It is no doubt lighter than Mogul taxation, but then we get the money and the Moguls did not, and the system prevents the rise of an agricultural middle class. There are districts in India where a man with 1,000 rupees is a millionaire.
