have the full benefit of all improvement within the term, it was felt that in the event of severe drought or calamity of season, or other extraordinary misfortune, the Government must share the loss with the people, and that remissions of revenue in such cases must be allowed. Hardly had Merttins Bird completed the Settlement in the Provinces, when this principle was put to an extreme test. The summer rainfall of 1836 almost totally failed in the central and western tracts of these territories. Thereby the harvest of that autumn was ruined, and the sowings for the ensuing spring harvest rendered impossible. The horror of the situation can be realized only by those who know what the earth in that region is after the glaring sun and scorching winds of spring and early summer, and what it becomes if the normal rains of midsummer fail to descend. Some ten to fifteen millions of the population were more or less grievously affected; dreadful distress and widespread mortality ensued; many grain riots and agrarian disturbances occurred. Extensive relief was undertaken by the Government and by charitable agencies. About one million persons were employed in relief works. The total cost of these humane operations amounted to nearly half a million sterling. The effect on the land tax which had just been fixed by the Settlement was still more grave, for about a million sterling of revenue was remitted that year. The rainfall of the following year restored plenty, but the effects of the famine on the people were felt for some time. Out of this evil
