PUBLIC WORKS.

The land-tax, or rent, as it has often been called, has always formed the principal item of revenue in India. And as this varied with the estimated productiveness of the land, it has been for the interest of the government to make land as productive as possible. It was also for the interest of rulers to increase the resources, population, and power of their respective kingdoms, as they had often to defend their dominions and their subjects against the encroachments of their unscrupulous neighbors. The circumstances and opinions of the people of India have always been such as to call the attention of their governments to such matters. The people have always been too ignorant to devise any public works, and too poor to execute them by private means or united capital. They regard all such matters as the proper work of the government, which alone has the ability to execute them, and will derive the principal advantage from them.

The ancient Hindu sovereigns, in accordance with such views of their own interests, and of the circumstances and expectations of their subjects, constructed roads and bridges to facilitate travel and traffic, and made canals and embankments to irrigate lands for cultivation. The remains and the ruins of many such works are found in different parts of the country. It was lately stated in one of the Indian journals, that in the Madras presidency alone, there are 43,000 works for irrigation in a state of repair, and more than 10,000 out of repair, all which were constructed before the English obtained possession of the country. These works greatly increased the fertility and resources of the country, and the wealth and happiness of the people. They furnish means for carrying on cultivation in times of drought, and so prevent sufferings in seasons of scarcity and famine, which are frequent on account of the failure of the rains in some parts of India.

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Many noble public works were also constructed in the northern parts of India. Previous to the Mohammedan invasion, roads were constructed by the Hindu Rajas between large cities with wells of water and caravanserais at convenient distances.

The Mohammedans, who have been often described as semibarbarians and oppressors, constructed many noble public works. Feroze Toghluk, who was emperor of Delhi from A. D. 1351 to 1388, though engaged in frequent wars, yet found time and means to devise and execute numerous public works for the benefit of his subjects. The following is a list for the maintenance of which lands were assigned, namely:-"50 dams across rivers to promote irrigation; 40 mosques, 30 colleges, 100 caravanserais, 30 reservoirs for irrigation, 100 hospitals, 100 public baths, and 150 bridges.” *

Of Acber it is said that "he constructed a series of canalworks of greater extent and utility than any previously in existence." The canal commonly ascribed to Ali Merdan Khan, probably because it was constructed under his superintendence, but at the expense of the emperor Shah Jehan, was yet more extensive and completed in a superior manner. The eastern Jumna or Doab canal, a large work, was also made in the reign of the same emperor. These canals were channels of traffic, supplied water for cultivating large tracts of land, and furnished water for all the common purposes of life in the cities through or near which they were carried. In the anarchy which ensued upon the dissolution of the great Mogul government, consequent upon the death of Aurungzeb, many of these works for want of repair and preservation, became of little use.

With such examples of the former governments before them and the remains and ruins of such works around them, it does appear strange that the English should possess these territories for more than half a century, and have done so little in the way of public works. And it does not appear strange that the native

* Concerning this list, which is taken from Ferishta, Elphinstone remarks: — "The round numbers, as well as the amount of some of the items suggest doubts of the accuracy of the list, but the works of Feroze, that still remain, afford sufficient evidence of the magnitude of his undertakings. The most considerable of these is not specified in the list. It is a canal from the point in the Jumna, where it leaves the mountains by Carral to Hanse, and to Hissar. It reaches to the river Gagar, and in former times was again connected with the Sutlege, the nearest of the rivers of the Punjab. It seems to have been intended for irrigation, but as it has been disused perhaps since the death of Feroze, we can only judge of it by the part of it restored by the British government, which takes in the whole beyond Hissar, a distance of 200 miles.”

population, while suffering the consequences of these works being out of repair and comparatively of little use, should complain of the English government over India; that the country was governed and its revenues expended too much for the interest of themselves, the rulers, and too little for the good of the people, their subjects. A few years ago this subject of internal improvement was taken up by the government, and if the plans formed, the promises made, and the pledges given, are all carried into effect, they will produce a new era in India. A few good roads have been made, and more are in the process of construction. If these are continued till the large cities and towns are united with each other and then with the seaports, they will be of great advantage to the country.

In the great valley of the Ganges, much progress has been made within a few years in repairing and improving the old canals and in constructing new ones. The entire length of the great canal and its branches is 445 miles, and the amount of land irrigated by it exceeds 1,000 square miles. The population obtaining their subsistence from this land, is estimated at 300,000, and the revenue collected from the irrigated land exceeds $450,000 annually, "nearly all of which is attributed to the use of the canal." This canal answers other important purposes besides irrigation. The amount of tolls collected on the traffic upon it and the rents for water-power to work machinery, are large. There are several other canals in the same great valley. The aggregate length of all these canals is 765 miles. The amount which the English government has expended in repairing and constructing them, exceeds 7,500,000 dollars, and the revenue from navigation, irrigation, water-power, etc., is estimated to vary from 1,500,000 to 2,000,000 dollars annually. These results are not less beneficial to the people than profitable to the government, and as there are yet large tracts of land, which can be brought into a state of new or improved cultivation by the same means, it is expected that internal improvements will be carried on vigorously for some years to come.

The government of India was much censured for some years in England, as well as in India, for not undertaking, and not sufficiently encouraging the construction of railroads. Great difficulties were anticipated from the rainy seasons, and from the

mountains in some districts, and the alluvial nature of the soil in others, where the railroads were most needed. After much delay, companies were formed and several railroads were projected. One of these railroads commences at Madras, and runs westward to Bangalore, where it is expected one branch will proceed to the western coast of the peninsula, and another proceed north into the Deckan, probably there to communicate with one leading to Bombay, and another to Calcutta. One is to commence at Calcutta and proceed to Delhi, and another is to commence at Bombay and proceed to Delhi, and there form a junction with the one from Calcutta. From Delhi it is to be extended to Lahore in the Punjab. These railroads are now in the process of construction, and I saw cars running on one of them before I left India. A large part of the capital for constructing these railroads is subscribed in England. The conditions are such that capital to any amount required can be readily obtained on the fixed dividend or interest of 4, 41, and 5 per cent., which is guaranteed for 20 years, by 'the East India Company. When these railroads are completed, they will form the grandest system of internal improvement ever yet accomplished in any country. And they will produce greater results than have yet been seen produced by the introduction and extension of railroads in any part of the world.

The electric telegraph has been introduced into India, and the large cities of Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay, can communicate simultaneously with each other, and with the large cities in the northern parts of India as far as Attock on the Indus.

India once supplied Europe and America with cotton goods, but her manufactures have been ruined by the use of machinery in England. She is capable of producing cotton enough to supply all Europe, but her cotton districts are far from her seaports, and the means of transportation are slow, difficult, and expensive. She has mines of coal of unknown extent, but they have hitherto been of little use for want of means to transport the coal to the seaports and other places where it has been required, and she has been to a great extent dependent upon England for coal for her steam-ships and her machinery. India has valuable iron mines, (the writer once heard a distinguished geologist who had been inspecting them say, they contained iron

enough to supply the world,) and yet nearly all the iron used in the country is procured from Europe, because the iron mines are in one province, and the coal is in another, and there have been no means for bringing them together. Among her great population are several millions, who are often suffering for want of employment, and who are ready to work in agriculture, or mining, or manufactures, for less wages than are known in any country in Europe or America. When the railroads now in the process of construction shall be completed, the people will require only the additional aid of machinery to change her cotton into cloth, and again supply Europe with manufactured goods. Her mines of coal, iron, etc., hitherto almost worthless and useless, will become of incalculable value and utility. The amount of sugar, indigo, grain, etc., produced, will be greatly increased, and the natural resources of the country will be developed.

England has yet made no adequate return to India for the immense wealth she has drawn from it. Let some of this wealth be invested in the public works now in progress and projected. Let the excessive salaries of the English government agents and officers be reduced to a proper standard, and the savings be expended on internal improvements.* Let the sur

* The Court of Directors previous to the last renewal of the charter, in 1853, had the patronage of the government of India chiefly in their hands, and they had also the determining of the salaries which the men they appointed should have. They appointed the members of their families and their friends, and the salaries, though fixed by the Directors, were yet all paid out of the revenues of India, and whatever these salaries, or the expenses of India were, no Director of the company or proprietor of the stock contributed any part towards them, or received any less himself on account of them. These facts will account in part for the high salaries in their employment, salaries generally quite beyond the value of any services rendered to India, or any qualifications required for the duties to be performed. This must be evident from the estimated value of these appointments. The Directors were forbidden by severe penalties to receive any pecuniary consideration for their patronage, but it was still very valuable, as they could bestow it upon the members of their own families and friends, or upon those who elected them. It was said by the best authorities on Indian affairs, that a commission in the Civil Service, when the fortunate possessor embarked for India, was worth from £4,000 to £5,000, and that a commission in the army was generally worth from £1,000 to £1,200. Recent changes in the char ter have put the appointments in the most highly paid departments of the gov

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