At the same time the change must be carried out with care and caution, and his Excellency in Council has no doubt that this is being done. The most efficient measures that are practicable should be taken to guard against the danger pointed out in your letter, and to give relief in each individual case in which it is necessary. When a man is obviously in danger of dying from starvation, it is evident that we cannot refuse to save him because he has been misled into joining a strike, or has neglected to comply with certain orders or conditions. If, however, after all practicable efforts have been made, the case anticipated as possible by the Government of Bombay should occur, and some of the more weakly should "wander about and die out of reach of assistance," the misfortune will be much regretted, but it will throw no discredit on the Government or its officers. In carrying out the humane policy which has been adopted, the Government does not pretend that it can guard against every one of the numerous risks to life which arise in time of famine, or that it can save everyone from the consequences of his own ignorance or folly.' With this ended the game of cross purposes between two Governments, after having been carried on for four months. CHAPTER III. FAMINE-STRICKEN LABOURERS ON STRIKE. As the story of the Bombay disaster and the means taken to grapple with it is unfolded, there is a marked falling-off in the suavity which was characteristic of its earlier features. One instance of this has been given in the preceding chapter. Another is manifest in the antagonism which arose between the Sarvajanik Sabha and the Bombay authorities. The society continued for some months its self-imposed and well-performed task of making independent enquiries, but it no longer found itself in perfect accord with the Government. From January to April 1877 its narratives are one prolonged note of complaint; in May it was prepared to acknowledge, and in fact did acknowledge, that things were not so bad as had been anticipated. The fact was the struggle had become exceedingly severe, questions had arisen for discussion, and practical difficulties had developed themselves of a kind calculated to arouse contentious feelings, and such were displayed. The four months now under review formed the period of greatest disaster, tested-and this was a fair test in Bombay-by the number of people on works. They are given in one of General Kennedy's notes thus: On January 19, shortly after Sir Richard Temple's visit, the rates of wages on one class of works were reduced-twelve days previously it had been decided that no wages should be paid for Sundays, when no work was done. A contrary rule, it may be remarked, was at this time being made in Madras. Civil agency works were usually situated near the homes of the people, and on them only very light tasks were imposed. The scales adopted for the two systems of relief then stood as follows: anna, plus the anna, plus the anna, plus the value value of 1 lb. of grain. value of 1⁄2 lb. of grain. The tasks demanded were respectively, on Public Works Department scale, 75 per cent. of an ordinary day's labour, on civil works 50 per cent. The object 1 Children under seven years of age received an allowance of an anna per diem, but did no work. NEED FOR PROFESSIONAL SUPERVISION. 335 was to get as many as possible under professional agency, as civil agency works involved waste. For instance, an executive engineer who had travelled through the districts discovered that one of the civil officers had estimated the cost of a relief work which he was desirous of obtaining sanction for at about half a lakh of rupees. The actual cost of the work under skilled control would not amount to one-tenth part of that sum. No doubt had the half-lakh been sanctioned, it would have been spent, and Government would have been losers of a considerable sum of money. In another case an officer had estimated a work to cost about five times the amount that the Public Works Department were ready to undertake it for. Lastly, it had been discovered that a small relief work which cost between three and four thousand rupees gave employment to almost as many petty native officials as workmen. In the face of these examples, it was not surprising that Government were desirous of leaving as few works as possible to civil agency. Unless they protected themselves in this way, the famine would cost about twice as much as it ought.'1 It will be observed that the sliding scale of payments in accordance with the prices of grain-a measure which does not seem to have been adopted on any previous occasions of famine-had the advantage of equalising the wages paid over all parts of the affected districts, and thus of preventing under-payments in one district and over-payments in another. While on the one hand it secured to the labourer a fixed amount of food in addition to a fixed sum of money, no matter what the state of the market might be, on the other it gave the Government the benefit of any fall in grain rates.2 1 Times of India Special Correspondent, February 7, 1877. So early in the crisis as November 20, a system of classification had been adopted; it was as follows: 'Class 1.-The able-bodied men and women, who should, as a rule, be drafted to the works, where there are any such within reach, under the Public Works Department, where the supervision is of a stricter and more effectual character, and where the value and quality of the work performed can be more correctly regulated and estimated. Class 2.-The less capable, the older men, and the women and children, who may, in larger proportions, be employed on the works under the collector, where the supervision, though it may be less strict, should still be maintained as far as is compatible with the object of the works. The workpeople should not be permitted to idle, and the work done should be regularly measured up, and its value calculated with reference to the expenditure incurred. 'Class 3.-People incapable of travelling any distance to work, and incapable of ordinary labour, who should be employed to the extent of their powers on trifling works about their villages, such as prickly-pear clearances, and the like. 'Class 4.-The old, infirm, blind, and cripples, who have no one to supply their needs, and to whom it is necessary to give alms for their support.' A distance test was also laid down whereby it was decided that, so far as possible, people should not be employed near their homes, but should show that they really were in distress by being prepared to go some distance for work. Sir John Strachey is said to have prevented a scarcity in the North-West Provinces from becoming a famine by the distance and other tests. Some two hundred thousand people were then assembled at what a contemporary writer calls 'a great picnic,' being |