1858-when the Government was tranferred from the East India Company to the British Crown-to 1877.

In those twenty years, he says, India has undergone a profound transformation. Two causes have mainly contributed to bring about this result-the gradual progress of education, and the extraordinary development of means of communication. The expenditure on education, as far as Government is concerned, has increased fourfold, and now exceeds £1,000,000 in the year, and the number of pupils has increased from about 200,000 in 1857 to about 1,700,000, and is rapidly increasing. Small as this number may seem, it being below one per cent. of the population, it shows extraordinary progress, and proves that education is beginning to affect the masses. At any rate, it compares favorably with the number in other semi-civilized countries. The progress of education in India is also shown by the increasing number of graduates of the universities of the three Presidencies, and the large number of pupils in the special engineering, art, and medical schools; and equally striking is the rapid growth of the native press and literature. But the results of the progress of education are at present valuable chiefly as the promise of a better future, when the present generation shall have grown up. The changes wrought by improved means of communication have been, on the other hand, almost instantaneous, and have already transformed the whole face of the country. The length of railways open in 1857 was 274 miles; in 1876 it had become 6,497 miles. The passengers carried in 1857 were 1,825,000; there were 26,779,000 in 1875. The miles of telegraphs increased from 4,162 miles to 16,649 miles; the letters and packets conveyed by post from less than 29,000,000 to more than 116,000,000 in the year. The opening

of the Suez Canal, in 1869, also marked a turningpoint in the trade of India and the East generally, The revenue of India advanced from £31,691,000, in 1857, to £55,422,000, imperial and provincial, in 1877; the expenditure from £31,609,000 to (estimated) £61,382,009, in 1877. The excess of expenditure over income, in 1877, is due partly to the famine and partly to the outlay on remunerative public works. Adding together the cost of public works, of education, and of surveys and other scientific operations, we find about £10,000,000 now yearly spent by the Government in India for the permanent improvement of the country and its people. The trade and shipping returns show a vast increase in wealth and prosperity. The tonnage entered and cleared in the foreign and coasting trade was 4,549,000 tons in 1857, and rose to 9,887,000 tons in 1875. The value of the imports was £28,608,000 in 1857, and £48,697,000 in 1877; of the exports, £26,591,000 and £62,975,000 respectively. These figures include treasure as well as merchandise. The imports of treasure amounted in the 20 years, 1858-77, to £167,582,677, but the exports of treasure to only £28,804,567, showing an increase in the precious metals to the amount of nearly £239,000,000, or about £1 for every head of population in the whole of British and Native India. The imports of merchandise have risen from £14,000,000 to £37,000,000 in the 20 years, an increase of 168 per cent.; the exports of Indian produce and manufactures from somewhat over £25,000,000 to £59,000,000, an increase of 133 per cent.; the total of imports and exports of merchandise showing an increase of 140 per cent.

On New-Year's-day, 1877, Queen Victoria was proclaimed Empress of India, with all the pomp of Eastern state. The proclamation was made at Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras; but

by flourishes of trumpets and a fanfaron from the massed bands of the different regiments present. A grand march was played, followed by the national anthem. Major Barnes, the chief herald, then read the proclamation, which was followed by a salute of 101 salvoes of artillery of six guns each.

Previous to the proclamation, during the last week of December, 1876, the Viceroy received in Grand Durbar many of the principal chiefs. One of the most interesting receptions was that of the Khan of Kelat, who, on this occasion, set foot on British India for the first time. The Khan was quite at his ease, and answered the Viceroy's questions without hesitation. He had seen, he said, in British India, three things which greatly surprised him-namely, steamboats, railways, and telegraphs. Lord Lytton replied that he hoped two of them might be shortly introduced into the Khan's dominions, and that the British Government would be glad to assist him in establishing them. The Viceroy then presented the Khan with very valuable presents, when the interview came to an end.

On March 13th, General Strachey, the Finance Minister, laid the budget before the Legislative Council. The statement closed the accounts of 1875-76. After allowing for the cost of the Behar famine, it shows a surplus of £1,658,882 on the ordinary account; but if the public works extraordinary are included, then a deficit of £2,601,747. The regular estimates for 1876-'77 show a deficit of £2,278,300 on the ordinary account, which is increased to £6,078,300 on the extraordinary account. Here the cost of the famine, which is estimated at £3,100,000, is included in the ordinary account. If it were excluded, this account would show a surplus of £624,800. The following are the budget estimates for 1877-'78: revenue, £52,192,700; expenditure, £56,442,400, of which £3,628,000 is for public works extraordinary. The deficit, £4,249,700, is reduced to £621,700, if extraordinary works are excluded; estimated cost of famine, £2,150,000, making £5,250,000 in two years; surplus, excluding famine, £928,300.

The decentralization scheme introduced by Lord Mayo was to be extended. The principle is that each province should, as far as possible, have the responsibility of meeting the cost of its own local requirements. This, however, is to be for the present carried out only in Bengal and the northwest. There would be no fresh imperial taxation; but Bengal was called upon to guarantee £275,000, and the northwest £50,000, being the interest on money spent on local canals and railways. It was proposed to extend the existing system of provincial taxation in Bengal, but not to introdace novel taxes in the northwest. A light license tax was to be imposed on trades, and authority given to assign 10 per cent. of the existing local rates for the canals and railways. On March 21st, the Legislative Council dis

cussed two bills introduced in accordance with Sir Richard Strachey's scheme for extending the decentralization of the finances. The budget was generally approved, the decentralization scheme finding particular favor. On the other hand, the abolition of duties on cotton goods was generally condemned as unwise. Two bills affecting local rates in the northwest, introduced in pursuance of the decentralization policy, were passed by the Council on March 28th. The Viceroy took advantage of the occasion to review the financial and general policy of the Government. He began by expressing the pleasure he felt to think that in the first year of his administration the Government had an opportunity of submitting its whole financial policy for discussion by the Council. The Government, he said, had honestly tried to avail itself of that opportunity, and had freely confided its anxieties and hopes to the public. Alluding, first, to the policy of excluding from extraordinary accounts unremunerative public works which might hereafter be undertaken, he said it was decided on by the Secretary of State, while Lord Northbrook was Viceroy, though now first announced. He believed that this policy was a step in the right direction; and it would not be his fault if it did not go much further, for he doubted whether an extraordinary budget was not altogether a mistake. He discussed at some length the cotton duties question, and said he earnestly desired their abolition, but altogether denied that he and those who thought like him were recklessly indifferent to the duty which they owed to Indian interests. He objected to the cotton duties because they appeared to him inconsistent with sound financial principles, and, as such, injurious to the interests of India. The Secretary of State had left the Government large, but not unlimited, discretion. That discretion extended only to time, and was most suitable and efficacious for carrying into practical effect principles which were finally determined on. He would not deny that their financial system was not free from other features as vicious as the cotton duties from a purely fiscal point of view; but he doubted if they were equally objectionable from a social and political standpoint. These all stood on the condemned list, and he hoped the Government would soon be able to deal with the worst of them-namely, the inland customs. He spoke strongly in favor of the decentralization scheme, and thought it surprising that English statesmanship, generally so free from Continental passion for legislative symmetry, should have persisted in attempting to apply to every part of an empire, vast, various, and composite, the same form of taxation. He hoped that the measures now before the Council would be prolific of beneficial results.

Passing to the depreciation of silver question, he expressed an opinion that experience had fully justified the Government resolution not to tamper prematurely with the standard of

value.

Government was fully alive to the importance of the question, but was unable at present to announce any action upon it.

He then turned to the famine, and estimated its cost at £5,250,000, although the area and the intensity of distress were much greater than during the Bengal famine, which cost £6,750,000. This encouraging fact was due partly to the completion of adequate railway communication, partly to the application of principles which experience had proved to be sound, and to the energy and discretion with which these principles were carried out. The person to whom the country was chiefly indebted for the present moderate estimate was Lord Northbrook, who laid down most important principles, which the Government were now following as far as possible.

been the case for many years. The country was now quiet and prosperous, and British influence predominant and welcome. He considered that the safest and strongest frontier India could possibly have would be a belt of independent frontier states, throughout which the British name was honored and trusted, and British subjects liked and respected; by which British advice was followed without suspicion, and British word relied on without misgiving

in short, a belt of states whose chiefs and people should have every interest and desire to coöperate with British officers in preserving peace on the frontier, developing their own resources, and vindicating their title to an independence of which the British would be the principal well-wishers and supporters. Looking to recent events on the frontier, he did not

The Viceroy next turned to military expenditure. The increase was mainly due to charges not under the control of the Government of India, but part of the increase was caused by measures recently taken to improve the power of rapid mobilization, which measures had been magnified and misrepresented by uninstructed rumor into preparations for a great campaign. No such design was ever enter

tained.

It had been his privilege to conduct to a successful issue efforts for the pacification of Kelat begun by Lord Northbrook. The present relations with Kelat were more satisfactory, more fraught with promise of the future and security for the present, than had

think this end unattainable; but did not believe it attainable by means of military expeditions, or, indeed, anything except constant friendly contact with their less civilized neighbors, and the presence, with everyday acts, in their midst of earnest, upright, English gentlemen.

Various parts of India were visited by a severe famine during the year 1877, which fully equaled that of China in its severity, although the relief measures adopted by the Supreme Government of India tended to deprive it of many of those horrors which attended the famine in China. According to a dispatch from the Government of India to the Secretary of State, the distressed territory in Bombay included an area of 54,000 square miles, with a population of nearly 8,000,000. In Madras the distressed districts were divided into two tracts, the first consisting of Bellary, Kurnool, and Zuddapah, which was by far the most afflicted, as in the southwest, northwest, and northeast the monsoon had failed. The second tract comprised nine districts, namely: Kistna, Nellore, Chingeeput, North Arcot, Salem, Madura, Coimbatore, Tanjore, and Trichinopoly; while only eight districts were actually free from famine in Madras. The total area affected in Madras was stated at 84,700 square miles, with a population of nearly 19,000,000. The Supreme Government indicated its policy in this case in a dispatch to Sir Richard Temple, as fol