Liverpool, Manchester, Preston, and York have all declined to subscribe
towards the Bengal Famine Fund, and we believe, upon the whole, they are right. So far as such subscriptions tend to show English sympathy with the people of India, they may be beneficial, but otherwise they can do no good, being mere gifts in aid of a poor-rate, and they may do this harm :—They may reduce the appreciation in Bengal of the costliness of a famine, and so encourage the Government in the neglect of that province which has for a century distinguished Indian manage- ment. The Presidency of Bengal has paid the English since Plassey more than a thousand millions sterling, but because her inhabitants were peaceable people, willing to pay regularly, she has been left almost absolutely roadless. The famine in Orissa is excused, "because Orissa is isolated," which is entirely our fault ; and the difficulty of transport, which is crushing Behar and North Bengal, and which, as the rivers rise, will be insuperable, is due to the same cause,—traditional neglect of the people who support the Empire, but who "ought to be extra taxed, because they will not if taxed rebel." If, however, kind hearts in Eng- land really wish to expand, let them send their cheques to the 'Lord Mayor of London, marked, "To be spent for the orphan children." Government can do nothing for them except keep them alive.
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