The accounts from Southern India are very bad indeed. Lord
Carnarvon, in a despatch dated January 12, and intended to- recapitulate all the facts, declares that the drought covers a terri- tory of 80,000 miles in Madras and 54,000 in Bombay, inhabited altogether by 23,000,000 of people. Already 1,090,000 persons are on the relief works, and it is calculated that by April this number will amount to nearly 5,000,000, while the distress cannot seriously decrease till August. The Government of India report that if the people are relieved the cost will be £6,500,000, and we understand this to be exclusive of the consequent deficiencies in the land revenue. Altogether the loss to the State will hardly be less than eight millions, even if private dealers, as at present, send down sufficient grain. The reticence which has been observed in India about this famine, which has been coming on for months, is startling, and if dictated by any reluctance to interfere with the ceremonial• at Delhi, inexcusable. We do not understand, either, why the Duke of Buckingham does not return at once to his en- dangered Presidency. The Times' correspondent, who telegraphs on the 14th inst., says he is going on a tour through the cities of the North. He might as well be in London.
Previous page
