acres, and gave evidence mainly about the growing of sugar-cane and the manufacture of sugar. The cultivators grew the cane, expressed the juice, boiled it, and then sold it to the factory. There it was made into Shukkur by mechanical pressure, boiled into syrup, and then evaporated into sugar.

The witness had much to say about the displacement of Indian labour by the introduction of English manufactures clothing, tools, implements, glassware, and brass articles. The people of India deprived of their occupations, turned "to agriculture chiefly."

C. E. TREVELYAN.

A more important witness was Sir Charles Trevelyan who, after a distinguished service in India under Lord William Bentinck, had become Assistant Secretary to the Treasury in England.1

While in India, he had helped in abolishing vexatious transit duties which had impeded the internal trade. And in his evidence before the Select Committee he pleaded for the removal of those unequal and prohibitive import duties in England which kept out India's manufactures.

Population of British India.-The population of Bengal was generally calculated at 30 millions; that of Northern India under British Rule at 30 millions; that of Madras about 14 millions; and of Bombay about 3 millions. Total for British India, 77 millions. The ordinary price of labour was 2 anas, or 3d. a day. Land in Bengal was tilled by cultivators who held it under landlords. "The theory of Indian agriculture is, that as long as the Ryot, who is the occupant of the soil, con

1 Later on he went out to India as Governor of Madras in 1859; was recalled in 1860 for his protest against new taxes; and was Finance Minister of India in 1862 to 1865 under Lords Elgin and Lawrence. He married Macaulay's sister, and to his son we owe the Life and Letters of Lord Macaulay.

tinues to pay the rates of rent fixed by usage in his district, he is not liable to be ousted; but this rule is constantly broken through."1 All restrictions against Europeans holding land in India had been removed; and it had been expected that Europeans would purchase lands and settle in India. "But that has ended in disappointment. The climate does not suit them; they do not look to ending their days there." 2

Sugar and Rum.-The equalising of the duty on sugar was useless until the duty on rum was also equalised. "It is a mere mockery to give equality in one respect only; in order to establish equality you must equalise the duty on all the articles manufactured from the sugar

cane."

The inequality in the duty on rum, besides being injurious to the manufacture of both sugar and rum, created a sore feeling, a feeling among the people of India that their interests were being sacrificed to those of more favoured countries.

Mr. Gladstone. When you speak of dissatisfaction existing among the natives, are you to be understood that you do not allude to the body of cultivators, or the population, but to that which may be fairly called the commercial class?

Mr. Trevelyan. I mean that those among them, particularly the commercial class, and the educated natives of Calcutta, who know something of the relations between India and the mother country, feel it as a grievance; that it goes to add to the sum of grievances which the natives feel; and that the feeling extends from the better informed class to the body of people, but without the body of the people well knowing the grounds.*

For the rest, the witness said that the Bengal sugar,

1 Question 1624.
Question 1499.

2 Question 1513.
Question 1789.

grown in the valley of the Ganges, had a vast home consumption. The 30 millions of Bengal, the 30 millions of British Northern India, and some 40 millions beyond, consumed the Gangetic sugar. Witness understood that the people of Central Asia too derived their supply of sugar from the valley of the Ganges, until that sugar met the beet-root sugar of Russia.1

Cotton Goods.-Indian cotton manufactures had been to a great extent displaced by English manufactures. "The peculiar kind of silky cotton formerly grown in Bengal, from which the fine Dacca muslins used to be made, is hardly ever seen; the population of the town of Dacca has fallen from 150,000 to 30,000 or 40,000, and the jungle and malaria are fast encroaching upon the town. The only cotton manufactures which stand their ground in India are of the very coarse kinds, and the English cotton manufactures are generally consumed by all above the very poorest throughout India. . . . Dacca, which was the Manchester of India, has fallen off from a very flourishing town to a very poor and small one; the distress there has been very great indeed." 2

Tea-Tea was grown in Assam, at first experimentally, by the Government, and since then by the new Assam Company. There was a dearth of local labour, and the Company engaged hill-coolies and took them from a distance to Assam to do work in the gardens. Witness believed that the contracts were for three years, but he had no precise information.

Indigo. Hill-coolies went annually to the indigo planters of Bengal to find employment in the manufacture of indigo, "just as the Irish come over into this country to get in the harvest." The coolies did not take their families with them, and they returned home after the indigo season was over.

River Steamers. All the steam navigation was still in the hands of the East India Company. The steamers Questions 1824 and 1825.

1 Question 1699.

water.

used were very small ones, and drew less than two feet There was a Steam Tug Company for drawing vessels up and down the Hughli River, which made a good dividend.

Roads.-Roads were seldom repaired at all, except along the main lines. But they seldom became entirely impassable for the country carts, which were stoutly made, except in the rains.

Raw produce.-Mr. Trevelyan recommended that the raw produce of India should be freed from all unequal duties in the English market. "We have swept away their manufactures; they have nothing to depend upon but the produce of their land, and I think it would be extremely unjust not to give equal privileges in the market of the mother country to that."

HENRY GOUGER.

"1

Henry Gouger was a merchant who had lived in India many years, and was the proprietor of works near Calcutta for the manufacture of cotton-twist, the distilling of rum, the expressing of oil from seeds, a foundry and a paper mill. His evidence therefore was of great value.

Cotton-twist.-700,000 lbs. weight of yarn was annually spun, of numbers varying from 20 to 50. The cotton used was all grown in India and selected with great care, and the machinery was worked by Indian labourers under European superintendence. There were 100 power looms, but their use was discontinued in order to employ the whole of the power steam for the manufacture of yarns which was more profitable. The lower numbers sold rather better than English yarns, the higher numbers on a par with them. But on the whole the profits of the business were not proportionate to the enormous cost. "I am inclined to think," said the witness, "there never will be another manufactory for spin

1 Question 1950.

ning cotton yarns, in consequence of the great expense attending the building of the present one."1

Coal.-Witness used coal from his own mine at Burdwan. The coal was sold at 16s. per ton in Calcutta ; it was not so good as English coal, but being cheaper was generally used in the steamers in India. The cost of the Burdwan coal at Calcutta was 12s. or 138. the ton; the price of Newcastle coal at Calcutta was 25s.

Sugar. The juice of the cane, boiled by the growers into Goor, was brought by them and sold at the manufactory to be made into sugar. Fine Benares sugar sold at 11 or 12 rupees (24s.) for 80 lbs. weight. The price was lower before the duties were equalised. Sugar was carried to England as dead weight and the freight was £4, 10s. the ton.

Rum.-West Indian rum paid a duty of 9s. per gallon on import into England, while Indian rum paid a duty of 15s. the gallon. Rum was distilled in India both from Goor, and from molasses, the refuse of Goor. From 80 lbs. of molasses 3 gallons of rum, London proof, could be obtained; a much larger quantity could be made from 80 lbs. of Goor. A gallon of rum could be supplied at Calcutta at 10 annas, i.e. Is. 3d.

It might be profitable to extract sugar from Goor and then to convert the refuse, the molasses, into rum; but that was not the general practice.

Silk.-Bengal raw silk, imported into England, sold at about 16s. the pound. Corahs, or silk piece goods made in India, sold at about 16s. or 17s. the pound. The export of raw silk from India was declining. In 1828-29 it was to the value of £920,000. In 1829-30 it was £800,000. In 1830-31 it was £720,000. In 1831-32 it was only £540,000. Probably an increase had taken place in the manufacture of silk goods in India, and the export of silk goods from India had also increased.

1 Question 1981.