being carried out at the expense of the landowners, under a special Act; and Government would probably have awaited the result of this experiment before extending the Act to greater schemes.
But if the famine interrupts everything it must also urge forward everything.
May it not also force the authorities to look in the face the terrible evils of the whole Zemindarry system? Is not the case something similar to that of the old Bengal army; and, if it is still ignored, may not a similar terrible convulsion ensue?
The subject is so vast that it is impossible to do more than just touch upon the principal points here.
II.
Crops improved.1. Irrigation and drainage improve the crop, and give crop when and where there would be none. Consequently—
Who is to profit?2. These combined works improve the entire value of the land: and the question is, Who is to reap the increase?
The Zemindar? 3. This must be either the Zemindar and his subordinates, who have spent nothing, or the Government which finds the money, or the ryot who cultivates. In England we should force the Zemindar to bear his part by a Poor Law to compel him to feed the suffering people, in the hope that he would find it cheaper to irrigate and drain than to feed.
