to Europe. The greater majority of the artisan classes who once formed large flourishing communities have been driven to earn their subsistence as agriculturists or labourers. Mr. H. J. S. Cotton, Secretary to the Government of Bengal, says; "Not a year passes in which the commissioners and district officers do not bring to the notice of Government that the manufacturing classes from all parts of the country are becoming impoverished......Agriculture is everywhere expanding at the expense of manufacturing industry." Large towns with urban populations have dwindled into inconsiderable villages. It has been estimated that nearly ninety per cent of our population is now dependent upon agriculture. But, while our people have become so exclusively agricultural, the extent of cultivable land, in proportion to the population, is very small. Sir James Craird, an eminent agricultural authority, was greatly struck by this fact when he visited India as a Famine Commissioner in 1878. He says: "A square mile of land in England, cultivated highly, gives employment to fifty persons in the proportion of twenty-five men, young and old, and twenty-five women and boys. If four times the number, that is, two hundred, be allowed for each square mile of cultivated land in India, it would take up only one-third of the population." The

pressure upon land has been gradually increasing. The time is not far distant when it will fail to meet the enhanced demand upon it, unless its food-growing capa city increases; and the prospect in that direction is certainly not cheering. The agricultural experiments which have been carried on by Government so long have not yet led to any important practical results. Dr. Voelcker, a renowned agriculturist, who was recently engaged by the Government to report upon the possible directions in which our agriculture may be improved, says after carefully inspecting nearly every part of India -"I unhesitatingly dispose of the ideas which have been erroneously entertained, that the ryot's culti vation is primitive and backward, and say that nearly all the attempts made in the past to teach him have failed, because he understands far better than his wouldbe teachers the particular circumstances under which he has to pursue his calling." With regard to deep ploughing, Dr. Voelcker says: "Though there may be instances where deep ploughing would be effectual, I believe that in the great majority of cases the native system of ploughing is the one best adapted to the conditions; and that were a furrow-turning plough used, the result would be to lose a great deal of the precious moisture." So the out-look for our agricultural classes

is indeed very gloomy. Large numbers of impoverished artisans have swelled their ranks, and struggle with them to earn a subsistence from land. That the struggle for existence amongst them is being gradually intensified, is indicated by many symptoms. It is the impression of many well-experienced men that the masses of our people are deteriorating in physique, and that they do not get sufficient sustenance to resist the attacks of fever. No doubt, here and there, we have flourishing well-to-do agricultural communities, as in Eastern Bengal. But over the greater portion of our country, in NorthWestern Bengal, Behar, the North-Western Provinces, Madras, Bombay, &c., the agricultural classes are far from prosperous; indeed, they are already much depressed. One season of drought is enough to produce widespread distress. Our labouring classes have also been largely recruited from the artisan population. They, too, are very hard pressed. It is true their wages have increased, but not in the same ratio as the price of food-grains. Three centuries ago, in the time of Akbar, we learn from that storehouse of the most valuable information, the Ain i-Akbari, that the wages of unskilled labourers, such as bamboo-cutters, &c., was 93 pies per day. But wheat then sold for about 5 annas per maund, and coarse rice for 8 annas per maund. Since then their

wages have increased three-or even four-fold, but the prices for wheat and for coarse rice have increased sevenfold, so that labourers were nearly twice as comfortable in the time of Akbar as they are now. They must now go without not only the comforts which they then enjoyed, but in many cases without the bare necessaries of life also. Thus we find that our artisan classes have been well nigh ruined and that the struggle for existence amongst the agricultural and the labouring classes has been gradually intensified to a most appal ling extent. The death-rate appears to have been increasing. In 1880 it was 20.98 per 1,000; in 1889 it was 28.05. No doubt there is always the suspicion that the registration may not have been efficient, and that the figures may not be reliable. Still so great an increase as 8 per thousand in to years can scarcely be due to inefficient registration in previous years.

The condition of the middle class is no better than that of the mass of the people; probably it is worse. They are all but excluded from the higher grades of the Government services. Old customs like the joint-family system still continue to impose upon them very heavy pecuniary responsibilities. New customs have arisen which add seriously to those responsibilities; these customs may be good, but they add to their encum

brances all the same. They have to work according to the exacting methods of Western civilisation : indeed, they have to work like Englishmen, but without an Englishman's food, without an Englishman's habits, and without an Englishman's reward. The cost of living has increased, but not the means to meet the increased cost. Meat diet is too expensive for the majority of them; milk and various preparation of milk, which form the chief articles of nutrition in our diet, have become very dear. So our middle classes have to work harder than ever upon diet less nutritious than our people were used to in days gone by. Without any scope for legitimate ambition in the Government services, they swell the ranks of hungry clerks and discontented newspaper writers. No wonder they grow up weak in body, and weak in mind; no wonder that such fell diseases as diabetes, etc., are counting their victims by scores. Western education is still confined to an inconsideracle portion of our population; not more than 1 in 2,500 of our people receive what is called advanced education. There is still a very wide field for its spread. But the struggle for existence amongst our educated class is already beginning to be very keenly and very widely felt. Thus we find that there is no section of our population that may be said to be prosperous. Our