ng its affairs unwisely. In its recent Annual Financial
Statement we discover evidences of prosperity in all departments of
State. There is no extensive famine to distress the people and harass
the government. The revenue of the year exceeds, by nearly 30 million
rupees, the estimates; there was a surplus at the end of the year of
20 million rupees. Owing to this the government has reduced the opium
cultivation, which has wrought, for many years, so much injustice to
China. It has also increased postal facilities, which renders them
cheaper and more convenient than in any other land. Moreover, the
obnoxious salt tax has been reduced by 50 per cent; and it is hoped
that the whole tax will be remitted shortly. The grant for education
is also much enhanced beyond any former year, and the State is even
planning for the introduction of a Free Primary Education, which will
be an unspeakable boon to the people.

And when it is said that taxation in India has been reduced, we should
also remember that in this land "the taxation per head is lighter than
in any other civilized country in the world. In Russia, it is eight
times as great; in England, twenty times; in Italy, nineteen; in
France, twenty-five; in the United States and Germany, thirteen
times." In other words, taxation in India comes to only one dollar, or
three rupees, per head.

But it is claimed that India is a land of deepest poverty. This is
perfectly true. But it is not true that her poverty is increasing. The
Parsee Chairman of the Bombay Stock Exchange, in his last annual
address, said that "it was the conviction of merchants, bankers,
tradesmen, and captains of industry that India is slowly but steadily
advancing along paths of material prosperity, and for the last few
years it has taken an accelerated pace." The poverty of the people is
a very convenient slogan of the political party; but there is
everything to prove that the condition of the people, deplorable
though it be, is, nevertheless, slowly improving.

The State is, moreover, constantly yielding to the growing demand of
the people for a larger share in the conduct of public business and in
the emoluments of office. Even at the present time the Secretary of
State for India has introduced a scheme, at the instance of the
government, which will add materially to the power of India in the
conduct of its own affairs.

The British were never more firmly entrenched and possessed of more
power in India