We have endeavoured elsewhere to do justice to the spirit
in which the India Office is approaching the crisis, but may mention here that Lord Northbrook's estimate of the certain call upon his resources is that he shall have to feed 2,500,000 persons for seven months, which will take about 250,000 tons of food. This estimate, which we believe to be too low, is quite szensistent with his estimate given to the municipality of Agra, that the famine " affects "26,000,000 of people., for he evidently thinks that 'nine-tenths of the population will be able, by saori- -lacing their hoards, to pay famine prices, and to get food for themselves. That proportion, which if correct would make the limit of true famine certain, is, we are convinced, too high. There is no country in the world where the" proportion of men with savings is so great, as that and it is certainly not true of half Bengal. A Bengalee honsehold requires; by the official calcula- tion, 150 lbs. of rice a month, and if its head is to pay, as is expected, 26 shillings" for it, the whole wage-earning class must be-relieved somehow, while the next class will be powerless long
• before the seven months are Over.
