CHAPTER XV.

ON THE INDIAN OCEAN.

THIS voyaging on the Indian Ocean is the perfection of travelling. The sea is so calm, the sun so bright, the air so balmy.

When I rose on Wednesday morning we were in sight of the rock of Aden, and at 10 o'clock we anchored in the harbour. There was a delightfully refreshing southern breeze blowing, and we landed to explore the place, driving in light covered carriages to the town on the opposite side of the peninsula from the landing-place, to the celebrated tanks, which hold millions of gallons of water, through two tunnels to the cantonment of the English troops and the lines facing Arabia, and to the pier, where native craft land provisions and fuel. What a grim, arid, sepulchral-looking place it is! The little one-barrel water-carts drawn by camels, the profusely-ornamented women, the number of vehicles of all kinds on the roads,

the total absence of trees-indeed, of all vegetation except in the small irrigated garden at the tanks and the sharp outlines of the peaks strike you. Then the harbour is always full of vessels steamers coming and going continually a Russian man-of-war entered when we were at anchor, saluted, and her salute was returned from a battery on the shore.

Brigadier-General Blair, V.C., was our fellowpassenger from Bombay, on his way to assume the governorship of Aden for five years-a brave soldier and most agreeable companion, to whom we wish health and happiness during his residence on that shadeless rock.

As 4 p.m. struck we weighed anchor, and had rather a rough time of it in the night, the scuttles being closed. When I got on deck at 7 a.m. all the square sails were set, and we were running past the Island of Gebel Zukur, with the wrecks of the Duke of Lancaster and Penguin on the port bow. Gradually the wind increased, until at noon our good ship began to take in seas; and not until we had passed the Twelve Apostles did the turmoil end.

The Venetia is a very substantial and excellent sea-boat, built and engined by Denny of Dumbarton, 2,726 tons, and commanded by Captain Daniell, who spared no effort to make everyone happy and comfortable on board.

Travellers in India and in the steamers to and fro will be struck with the frequent discussions which they hear about the taxation of that country. There can be no doubt that the wealthier classes there do not bear their fair share. In fact, the rich natives get off nearly scot-free, and millionaires not in trade need pay no more than the ryot whose salt is so heavily burdened.* Even the landed proprietor is charged a mere trifle in comparison with what his forefathers paid under the settlements of Akbar; and the poorer classes will

"The exemption of the richer classes from taxation is a political mistake, which, as time goes on, and knowledge and intelligence increase, must become more and more mischievous: "India," by Sir J. and General Strachey.

"It is notorious that the mercantile wealth of the country, which is considerable, and daily increasing, pays very little, in proportion to its means, for the protection and advantages which it enjoys under British rule: "-Mr. Bazett Colvin on "Indian Taxation.

TAXATION OF INDIA.

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always have a grievance as long as no incometax, or similar mode of reaching the large number of wealthy natives, is imposed.

Well-paid civil servants and baboos unite against any such proposal, their newspapers enlarging on the difficulty of getting it to work fairly, especially in a country like India, where deceit is a science. Yet I have met British officials who believe that with a little courage and determination on the part of the authorities it might be imposed. with safety, would remove a great injustice, and prove a national benefit. But while rich people pay a mere trifle towards the expenses of government, the small holders and labourers do contribute a considerable portion of their hard earnings in the shape of a salt tax; and instead of reiterating impressions of my own regarding their impoverished condition, let me quote two passages from "British India and its Rulers," just published by Judge Cunningham, of the High Court of Calcutta :

"On the whole it may be said that the great mass of the occupants of the soil of India must be, from the smallness of their holdings, and the numbers who have to be

supported on them, at the best of times hard pressed for the means of subsistence; that, in the case of a very large number in Bengal and upper India, the hardships of their position are enhanced by the presence of a class of more or less exacting landlords, whose eagerness for an increased rental is favoured by the increased necessity of a growing population to find room on the soil; that habits of improvidence, and traditional customs of occasional extravagance, not unfrequently destroy any chance there might be of a rise to greater comfort and security; that the almost universal practice of dependence on moneylenders has of late years entailed more serious consequences, owing partly to the larger and more assured interest in the soil which the landowner enjoys under the British revenue settlement, and the better credit he thus obtains; and partly to the speedier, more exact, and more effectual procedure of the civil courts; that some of the conditions of modern life may have tended to enhance the difficulties of particular classes; that though there can be no doubt that a large amount of wealth is being brought into the country, the increase of population, which is likely to be accelerated, will, in years to come, make a large demand on the resources so created; and that, as no considerable outlets, other than in agricultural employment, at present exist, the pressure on the soil and the penury of the less thrifty and capable agriculturists, is likely, in the absence of some new form of relief, to become still severer than at present."

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The grave political and social dangers to which an impoverished, degraded, and rack-rented peasantry gives rise, are assuming every year a more menacing aspect, and the controversy has a tendency, as the pressure of the population on the soil increases, to become continually more embittered. Official evidence of the weightiest