The Indian famine is officially pronounced at an end. Rain
has fallen, upwards of a million persons hitherto sustained on the relief-works and in the relief-camps have returned to their labour, and the Duke of Buckingham telegraphs to the Lord Mayor that collections on this account may cease. Everybody praises the Lord Mayor, who has worked hard, and raised nearly half-a- million sterling ; but the public should not forget Lord Salisbury, under whose guidance the famine campaign has been fought out, at a coat of eleven millions. We do not believe the victory has been as complete as it was in Behar, seeing reason to think that at least half-a-million of people have died of hunger and its accompaniments, but a more gallant and determined attempt to save a people was never made. Everybody concerned has done his utmost, financial trouble of the most serious kind has been faced, and the great population entrusted by God to the India Office is alive, though im- poverished and thinned in number. Whether the people will be grateful is doubtful, for they regard benevolence as a Catho- lic priest regards liberality to the Church—as a virtuous act to
be repaid by Providence, rather than by the immediate subjects of the benefit—but at least the English conscience is clear. If we- govern without consent, our government is still a vivifying one.
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