of the irrigation works are unprofitable. Their total cost to the end of 1887 was reported to have been Rx 23,770,346. They entail an annual loss to the Indian Treasury of about Rx 725,400. The returns of agricultural live stock for 1887 (except for Bengal, the Central Provinces, and Assam, which comprise 38 per cent. of the cultivated area of British India) are: Cows and bullocks, 35,677,081; buffaloes, 9,258,564; horses and ponies, 909,412; mules and donkeys, 941,563; sheep and goats, 25,571,588.

The crop reports for 1888-'89 state that the wheat harvest in the Punjab exceeded that of the previous year by 6 per cent., and that in Scinde there was an increase of 9 per cent., but that in the Central Provinces and in the Northwest Provinces and Oudh the yield fell below that of 1887-'88 by 23 per cent.

The area devoted to wheat culture in 1889-'90 is estimated at from 26,000,000 to 27,000,000 acres. The total exports for five years show an annual average of 18,729,851 hundred-weight. The wheat trade has suffered from the carelessness of native cultivators in growing and gathering the crops. Indian wheat has always reached the European market with an admixture of, at least, 5 per cent. of seeds and dirt and with a large percentage of white wheat mixed with the red, and of red wheat in the white. Dealings in Indian wheat have been made under a form of contract requiring that deliveries shall be of the fair average quality of all shipments received from India during the same month. Since buying by sample was impossible, dealers on receiving a lot grown and prepared for market with unusual care have invariably mixed dirt with it to bring it down to the average. It thus became more profitable to the ryots to send off wheat dirty than to clean it. In 1889 the matter was discussed in English newspapers and commercial bodies, and some of the trade associations adopted a new rule by which a higher price is given for Indian wheat containing not more than 2 per cent. of impurities.

At the end of 1888-'89 there were 124 cotton mills in operation in India, with 21,561 looms and 2,762,518 spindles. They consumed 3,110,289 hundred-weight of raw cotton, and gave employment to 91,598 persons. The capital invested was nearly £10,000,000. Of the 124 mills 91 were in the Bombay Presidency, where in 1870 there were only 7 mills. The area under cotton in the beginning of 1888 was 14.532,513 acres, of which about 5,500,000 were in Bombay and Scinde. There were 4 woolen mills in India in 1888, with 263 looms and 6,868 spindles. Since 1879 the number of cotton mills has increased 121 per cent., the spindles 90 per cent., the looms 65 per cent., the number of operatives 113 per cent., and the quantity of cotton used 232 per cent. China and Japan take seven eighths of the total export of cotton yarns. The cotton yarns and twists of Bombay affect injuriously the exports of Lancashire fabrics to those countries, and the Indian Government has been requested to curtail the extraordinary hours of labor in the Indian mills. The people of India, on the other hand, have asked for the repeal of the British duty on silver plate and the abolition of hall-marks in order to promote the export of Indian silversmiths' work to Great Britain. The

importation of sugar has increased in recent years, while the exportation has decreased, owing to the competition of beet sugar in Europe. The exportation of tea has made great strides, Indian tea, grown mostly in Assam, having supplanted Chinese tea in the English market. Mineral oil has become an important item in the trade returns. Umbrellas are very largely imported, both from England and from China.

The development of the foreign trade of India has been comparatively greater with other countries than with Great Britain, and Indian commodities have come into competition with British in certain markets. Especially have the exports to China, Japan, and eastern Africa largely increased. The value of the Indian trade carried through the Suez Canal steadily advances. In 1888-'89 it amounted to 68 per cent. of the whole, 80 per cent. of the imports and 584 per cent. of the exports passing through the canal. trade with Great Britain was 74 per cent. of the total, France coming next with 74 per cent.

The

Navigation. The total number of vessels entered at the ports of India in 1887-'88 was 5,308, of 3,514,214 tons; the number cleared was 5,585, of 3,675,251 tons. Of the vessels entered 1,898, of 2,823,712 tons, belonged to Great Britain; 1,043, of 136,968 tons, to British India; 1,627, of 83,311 tons, to native states; and 740, of 470,223 tons, to foreign countries. The number of steam vessels arriving by way of the Suez Canal in 1887-'88 was 949, of 1,637,738 tons. The number of coasting vessels entered in 1887-'88 was 120,269, of 9,021,633 tons; the number cleared was 106,756, of 8,899,906 tons.

Railroads. There are five great trunk lines of railroad belonging to companies subsidized and guaranteed by the Government. These are the Great Indian Peninsula, the Madras, the Oudh and Rohilcund, the Bombay, Baroda, and Central Indian, and the South Indian lines. The state has built subsidiary lines as feeders for these and others for famine relief, as well as strategic railroads. Of 14,059 miles built before the close of the year 1887-'88, in which £186,000,000 of capital were invested, 6,368 miles earned more than 5 per cent., 2,386 miles between 3 and 5 per cent., and 5,305 miles failed to earn 3 per cent. The passenger receipts for 1888 showed an improvement of 8-12 per cent., and the freight receipts were 10.88 per cent., more than in 1887. There were 15,245 miles completed at the end of 1888-'89, the chief sections opened during the year having been 110 miles on the Bengal and Nagpore line, 303 miles on the Indian Midland, and 222 miles on the Burman line. The gross receipts in 1888-'89 amounted to Rx 19,764,475 and the expenses to Rx 9.874,347. There were 103,156,013 passengers carried, against 95,411,779 in the previous year. The wheat carried has increased in two years from 964,428 to 1,175,231 tons. In 1887 the Government purchased the East Indian line at a large advance on the cost. In 1884 it was announced that there would be no more guarantees or subsidies, and that private enterprise could be relied on to complete the system of economic railroads. The Bengal and Northwestern Railroad, which was built without state assistance, earned 34 per cent, on invested capital in 1888, the second year of its operation. Since

the guaranteed companies have all the arterial routes, and new roads can only serve as their feeders, there is little encouragement to private enterprise. In 1889 the Government felt compelled to return to the guarantee system or to adopt the system of land grants. In treating with a syndicate for the construction of a line from Chittagong to East Bengal it was proposed to subsidize it with 3,000 square miles of land, with exclusive rights to prospect for gold or petroleum. The length of guaranteed lines at the close of 1887-'88 was 3,911 miles of assisted lines, 653 miles; of imperial state lines, 7,455 miles; of provincial state lines, 1,539 miles; of native and foreign state lines, 883 miles; total, 14,383 miles.

Posts and Telegraphs. The postal traffic has doubled in ten years. The number of letters forwarded during the year ending March 31, 1888, was 244,204,771; of newspapers, 21,832,775. The receipts for the year were Rx 1,214,196; expenses, Rx 1,375,215.

The telegraph lines on March 31, 1888, had a total length of 31,894 miles, with 93,517 miles of wire, exclusive of 226 miles of cable. The number of paid dispatches in 1887-'88, was 2,825,691. The receipts were Rx 763,886; expenses, Rx 786.627.

The Drink Traffic.-The Government of India is accused by the natives and their sympathizers with having for fiscal reasons introduced and encouraged the vices, formerly rare, of spirit drinking and opium smoking, which have caused a great deal of misery and degradation throughout India in recent times. The Government itself manufactures liquor in the central distilleries, which are farmed out under a system that encourages the manufacture and sale. Elsewhere the proprietors of stills pay a fixed sum to the Government, and since no effective restrictions are placed on the quantity or quality of the product, they distill poisonous liquor and sell as much as they can. This system was introduced in 1876, when the revenue from drink had been stationary for several years. Within five years the receipts of the Government from this source doubled. An attempt was made to reverse this policy, but, as the revenue straightway fell off by Rx 50,000, the Government gradually returned to the old system, licensing 50 distilleries at a time in spite of the protest of the native population. The revenue from liquor rose from Rx 2.619,000 in 1879 to Rx 4,578,000 in 1888. In Bengal the consumption of strong drink has increased in ten years by 135 per cent., or from 1,600,000 to 3,700,000 gallons. În Bombay between 1882 and 1886 there was an increase of 374 per cent., or from 2,000,000 to 2,750,000 gallons. A convention of missionaries at Calcutta in December, 1888, proposed to confer the right of local option on the municipalities, feeling confident that the municipalities would refuse to license the sale of liquor. The Hindus and the Mohammedans are alike opposed to the use of alcohol, and the climate and the constitution of the people make indulgence in liquor a fatal habit. The imports of spirits show an increase of 50 per cent, and those of malt liquors one of 60 per cent, in ten years, while all over India there is a steady increase in the manufacture of beer.

Partial Famine.-In Ganjam, a coast district in Madras, to the north of the Godavari river, a failure of crops from drought caused great scarcity of food in 1889. The country, which forms the northern extremity of the presidency, is exceptionally fertile, but is devoid of irrigation tanks and even of wells. Grain rose to famine prices. The Governor, Lord Connemara, who visited the district in May, established relief works and ordered gratuitous aid to be given to women and children. The cholera raged at the same time, causing 1,000 deaths a week. The want of rain was great throughout southern India. In the Orissa and Patna divisions of the presidency of Bombay the failure of the harvest was not so complete as in Ganjam ; but there was greater suffering because the authorities were less prompt in providing relief. A magistrate at Alipore punished starving men and women for a breach of the revenue laws in scraping salt from the earth to flavor their meal of water-lily stalks. In Ingul 10 per cent. of the people suffered extreme hunger. In the native states the distress was generally more acute than in British territory. The Rajah of Puspulla, in particular, was censured for his neglect.

The Crawford Case.-Lord Reay, Governor of Bombay, in attempting to extirpate corruption in the civil service, received no support or sympathy from other Indian administrators, whose practice is to hush up scandals and prevent misdeeds of British officials from coming to the knowledge of the public. Arthur Travers Crawford, a Bombay civil servant, was promoted to the high post of commissioner of the central division of the Presidency, with headquarters at Poona. He was in grievously embarrassed circumstances, and in 1873 agreed to pay to his creditors all his large salary in excess of 1,800 rupees a month. His embarrassment continued and he continued to borrow, till in 1884 the Government sanctioned an arrangement by which his pay and allowances were handed over to his creditors, 1,500 rupees being reserved for the monthly expenses of himself and his family in England, and later this was cut down to 650 rupees. Meanwhile he lived extravagantly, paying through his bank as much as 50,000 rupees in a single year. Subordinate officials accused him of extortion, a definite charge of taking bribes was finally brought against him, he attempted to flee in disguise, and was arrested. In October, 1888, a commission, consisting of three civil servants of high official rank, was appointed by the Government of India at the request of the Bombay Government to investigate

the case. Mr. Crawford told the commissioners that he had agents engaged in borrowing money for him from natives in different parts of the large and populous district over which he was the chief magistrate, his principal agent being one Hanmantrao Raghavendra. This man testified that Mr. Crawford employed him simply as a general agent to obtain bribes, and that he kept the commissioner in funds and in return dispensed all the patronage and favors and suggested all appointments, promotions, and transfers of Government officials. This statement he supported with a multitude of details. Sirdekar, Dabib, Bapat, and many others, all native subordinate magistrates, or mamlutdars, swore

his opinion that the evidence established the charges of bribery beyond all reasonable doubt. Lord Cross declined to review the judgment of the commission, but concurred in Lord Reay's proposal to dismiss Mr. Crawford, holding that the charge of improperly borrowing money was sufficient ground. The commissioners had not been able to reject the evidence that some of the officials had paid bribes to obtain or keep their appointments, but by their finding inculpated only Hanmantrao, who was subsequently tried and found guilty. Lord Reay, in order to get at the bottom of the extortion and corruption, had entered into an engagement with the native magistrates who were coerced into paying illegal gratuities to Mr. Crawford or his agents, whereby they were not to suffer for their evidence before the commission. Jealousy and bad feeling between the European official class and the native community grew out of the Crawford case. The natives and their Radical friends in England alone upheld Lord Reay in the position he had taken; but the Anglo-Indians, while deprecating a thorough investigation of the charges against the great English official and asserting that he had been cleared of all suspicion of criminality, demanded that his victims should be dismissed from office, disgraced, and punished for the crime of bribery. The judges of the High Court of Bombay remonstrated with the Governor for continuing the magistrates in office and received a reprimand from the Governor in Council. The clamor against the course of the Governor be

of the reign of George III by purchasing judicial offices. The native magistrate who heard the complaint dismissed the case, the High Court reversed the decision, the lower tribunal refused still to entertain the charge, and the appellate court for the second time pronounced the decision erroneous in law, but declined to order the court of first instance to investigate the facts. The home Government again exercised pressure on Lord Reay, who first transferred 33 of the mamlutdars implicated in the Crawford affair to other districts, and then deprived some of them of the right to perform judicial functions, but retained them as administrative officers. The official Anglo-Indians, who stop at no arrogance or injustice that will serve to crush the spirit and humble the pride of the conquered race, were not content with having thus humbled the reforming Governor and driven the Government partially to violate its pledges. Their press organs held up Mr. Crawford to public sympathy as an officer of distinction and genius who had emerged from the investigation with untarnished honor, but yet, on the flimsy ground of indebtedness, had been discharged with ignominy from a service he had adorned for thirtyfour years because he had become unpopular in the native community. His case was contrasted with that of the mamlutdars, who by their confession were guilty of corrupt practices yet were continued in office and allowed to exercise judicial functions. Lord Reay was finally compelled to depart still further from his

promise. Nine of the mamlutdars were dismissed from the public service on the ground that they had voluntarily paid bribes to escape the consequences of their misdeeds or to obtain unmerited promotion. While making this concession at the demand of the Secretary of State, Lord Reay stipulated that the discharged magistrates should receive pecuniary compensation and that the other incriminated magistrates should be officially exculpated as victims of extortion who under extreme pressure had consented to pay blackmail in order to escape unjust punishments. The Anglo-Indian press demanded that Mr. Crawford should be justified and indemnified by the payment of a retiring pension; but Lord Cross and the Viceroy both intimated that he had received his deserts, and bestowed praise on Lord Reay for his courage and earnestness in endeavoring to put a stop to bribery and corruption. The Governor-General's Council on Oct. 17 adopted a special indemnity bill, securing for the mamlutdars who were continued in their posts exemption from punishment, protection from private prosecution, and immunity from the statutory disability. Those who were removed were compensated by the continued payment of their full salaries.

The Deccan Mining Concession.-W. C. Watson and J. G. Stewart, English financiers, obtained from the Nizam of Hyderabad a concession of mineral rights in the Deccan, which has always been considered the richest part of

pelled by the terms of the contract to invest in surveys and preliminary works. The Nizam recovered his money from the corrupt agent, but had parted with the mining monopoly, and was unable to compel the concessionnaires to develop the mines or to bestow the privilege on honest undertakers. Lawyers were able to find no way out of the difficulty, and the Indian Government and a select committee of the House of Commons could only condemn the shrewd trick of Mr. Watson. It was only the prospect of further profits that induced the city speculator and his associates to offer a compromise that would enable the company to carry on operations on a large scale. The value of the Singareni coal field was known from Government surveys, and £60,000 of the original capital had been expended in developing these mines. After two years of working, the mines were producing at the rate of 80,000 tons a year, and the railroads alone offered a ready market for nearly thrice that quantity. Through the intermediation of the Government Watson and Stewart agreed to furnish £150,000 more of capital, on which no dividends will be paid till the other shareholders receive 5 per cent. As the coal-mining operations can be so extended with the new capital that the entire £1,150,000 can probably earn 5 per cent. after a few years, the agreement was not of the nature of a restitution. The Singareni coal field, situate at Yellindellapadu, 120 miles east of Secunderabad, is only 8 square miles in extent, yet