indigo interest, is still withheld. The cry during
the past session has been a double one. The
great want of the cotton-growers, say one party
of enthusiasts, is means of communication.
Enable the natives to bring their cotton to the
sea, make roads, and open rivers at any expense;
it will all pay in the end. The opening of the
Godavery—by the irrigation of immense
districts, as well as by its services as a means of
carriage—will of itself, they say, convert India
into a Cotton Paradise; and the " Fairy Tales
of Science" told by Madras engineers on the
subject, sound like omitted passages from the
Arabian Nights Entertainments. The only
suspicious characteristic of these schemes is that
nobody seems willing to undertake them. The
gentlemen who urge them with such fervour
upon the government, if so well assured of their
paying powers, might surely get them taken up
by private enterprise. But it is only "in the
end" that it appears they will pay, and private
speculators, as we all know, have a prejudice in
favour of schemes paying in the beginning. In
the mean time, to encourage them in holding
back, another section of enthusiasts declare that
while roads always come of themselves as soon
as they are really wanted, irrigation is all
nonsense; that the schemes proposed can never
pay at all, and that, if they did, they would not
answer the desired object. Of course they know
exactly what will: nothing but the permanent
settlement of the land revenue, which they
vexatiously proclaim to be the panacea, to the
confusion of all previous conclusions arrived at
on the subject.

The government do not go so far as to adopt
these latter opinions, but they tell Manchester
and her friends that the improvements proposed
cost a great deal of money, and that the question
of proceeding with them is a financial one,
depending upon the paying character of the
schemes and the resources of the local
authorities; that the home government do not
consider it politic to take any extraordinary
measures to increase the production of cotton in
that country, declining either to become cotton-
growers themselves, or to give direct assistance
to any particular commercial speculation. The
object must be attained by private enterprise if
it is to be attained at all, and private enterprise
must be self-supporting. Upon this delicate
question a lively contest has been carried on
during the past year, the government refusing
to interfere, and Manchester wanting to be
interfered with. The celebrated attitude of the
Earl of Chatham and Sir Richard Strachan was
active co-operation compared with the positions
thus taken up. Of course nothing could come
of a dead lock, and nothing was done accordingly
until the dead lock was brought to an end. Where
there are two sides to a question, it may be
supposed that one is the right side and the other the
wrong side. In the present case we believe the
balance to be in favour of the authorities. It is
not desired of a government—at any rate in these
days—that it should conduct commercial operations
on its own account; and to give active
assistance to any particular operations—in the
hands of a company, say—would be unfair to
other competitors. What is required is, that the
government should smoothe the way and make
the conditions as favourable as possible for all
who like to come into the field. These objects,
thanks to the later policy of Lord Canning, have
been to a great extent effected, and what is
wanted is in a fair way of being attained. With
regard, however, to the material improvements
demanded, they must stand on their own merits
as much as the political reforms. It is desirable
to have more roads and more irrigation, as it is
desirable to have the Permanent Settlement and
a Contract Law; but something besides cotton
must be considered in introducing these reforms.
Neither are roads and irrigation the only
requirements for the successful competition of India
with America in the cotton market; but they
are desirable so far as this—that the more we
can increase natural advantages and create
artificial advantages of the kind, the more we shall
assist the general prosperity of the country.
The Permanent Settlement carried out all over
India would not have that direct effect upon
cotton which some sanguine enthusiasts suppose;
but it would materially assist in the general
progress. In the one case, as in the other, cotton
would come in for its share in the common
benefit. The rest is a question of expense and
general policy. As far as money can be found
for the purpose, it has been determined to push
on public works; the Permanent Settlement has
been agreed to, and will be carried out in due
time. But it would be too much to expect that
government should incur all the risk—pecuniary
or political, as the case may be—and Manchester
get all the profit. If such works as the
Godavery, for example, will really pay, why does not
Manchester contribute her capital towards them?
If they will not pay, upon what commercial
principle is it that she expects government to
make a sacrifice for her sake? With regard to
political measures, it is scarcely necessary to
remark that they must be considered on their
own merits, and with a view to the general
interests of the country. There is a plant called
Confidence, which is even more important than
the plant called Cotton, and as the crop is a
precarious one, and requires careful treatment,
it is naturally the first subject of anxiety.

These are facts which have been apparent to the
public for some time past, and Manchester herself
has at last admitted them. At the first annual
meeting of the Manchester Cotton Company it
was announced that measures were being taken
for the practical encouragement of the growth
of cotton in India, the means adopted being
those which have been recommended all along
as the best adapted for the object. It is not
intended that the company should grow cotton,
but that it should send agents to the most
favourable fields for that cultivation, to buy up
the produce as fast as it can be supplied,
encouraging the cultivators with pecuniary
advances when necessary, as well as seeds, and
giving personal superintendence to the cleaning,