The net earnings realized were 51 millions, which gives an average return on the capital of 5.36 per cent.

POSTS AND TELEGRAPHS.-In 1899 there were 29,122 postoffices and boxes, and the number of letters, postcards and money orders carried was 431.012.691. The number of telegraph offices was 1,719, of miles of line was 51,769, and of telegrams 5,448,600.

SAVINGS BANKS at the close of 1899 showed 774.559 depositors, and over 36 million dollars in deposit.

FINANCE. The total estimated revenue in millions of U. S. dollars for 1900-1 was 350.7, the

expenditure 349.9. The chief items in the revenue were from land 90.4, from salt 29.2, from opium 22.8, from excise 19.1. The chief items of expenditure were for the army 81.3, for the civil service 55.4, for collection 32.1, for buildings and roads 21.0, for famine relief and insurance 16.8. In the permanently settled tracts, the land revenue represents on an average about one-fifth of the rental, or about one twenty-fourth of the gross value of the produce. In the temporarily settled tracts, it represents something less than one-half of the rental, and is about one-tenth of the gross value of the produce. The total debt of British India is 822.4 millions in U. S. dollars.

THE ARMY comprised in 1897-8 infantry 53,688, artillery 13,407, cavalry 5,670, etc.; in all 74,288 British soldiers. The Native army comprised infantry 111,925, cavalry 22,932, sappers and miners 3,695, artillery 2.088. The native forces, and especially the artillery, are kept in smaller proportion to British than before the Sepoy mutiny. The grand total, British and Native, is 214,928. The coast and inland defences and strategic roads are now complete. The death rate, which before the Mutiny was 6.9 per cent. for British and 2. for Natives, has been reduced, by better sanitation and barracks, and by residence of the British at hill-stations, to 1.6 and 1.0 respectively. In 1888 the Government elaborated a plan for the training and

equipment of native contingents, with the purpose of enabling the Princes to share in the defence of the Empire. These contingents, known as Imperial Service Troops, now number 17,664 men.

THE NAVY is limited to coast defense, and includes only two ironclads, nine torpedo boats, a mining flotilla, etc.

HISTORY, during the last decade, includes the following events: In June, 1893, the Government stopped the free coinage of silver, in order to introduce the gold standard, which had been prior to 1835 in force, supplemented by silver, and prior to 1818 in force alone. This change was the final and disastrous blow to the use of silver as a measure of value and as money of full debt-paying power; and relegated it to use as a token-metal.

In 1895 the Amir of Afghanistan and the Indian Government agreed upon a boundary line from Wakhan to the Persian border, which assigned Asmar and the valley above it as far

had not been shown to be necessary, or to be demanded by the people, that the growth of the poppy and the manufacture of opium in British India should be prohibited. The existing treaties with China, in regard to the importation of Indian opium with that country, had been admitted by the Chinese Government to contain all they desired. The evidence led the commissioners to the conclusion that the common use of opium in India is moderate, and its prohibition is strongly opposed by the great mass of native opinion."

Failure of rains, especially in the northwestern and central districts, was followed by the inevitable famine, to meet which the Government provided relief works. In December, 1896, these gave employment to 561,800 persons; in March, 1899, to over three millions, and in June to over four millions. The additional charitable contributions for famine re-. lief were officially reported at $8,750,000. The bubonic plague, which was bred in the

as Chanak to the Amir, and Swat, Bajaur and Chitral including the Arnawai or Bashgal valley to the Indian Government. Disturbances in Chitral occasioned British interference and ended in British control. "The Government of India do not intend to undertake themselves the management of the internal affairs of Chitral, their concern being with the foreign relations of the State, and with its general welfare. Ordinarily

the entire country will be governed in accordance with their (the native rulers) experience and judgment; but nevertheless the Assistant British Agent, if he thinks it necessary to do so, may at any time, ask the Mehtar to delay action recommended by his three advisers until the opinion of the British Agent at Gilgit has been obtained, whose decision shall be final and authoritative." The sale of slaves for export to Chinese Turkestan was at once declared illegal.

In the same year an all but unanimous report of the Opium Commission stated that "it

Chinese province of Yunnan, reached Bombay in 1896, and spread thence to Karachi and the Punjab. By the end of 1899 the mortality from plague throughout India since its beginning was estimated at 250,000. Bombay suffered by far the most heavily. Great difficulty was experienced in attempting to segregate or inoculate the superstitious natives. Haffkine's prophylactic is now being used in Bombay with remarkable success. The French bacteriologist, Yersin, has moreover discovered a cure.

In 1897 Burmah was raised in status as a British dependency, though remaining under the Indian Government. Its chief commissioner became lieutenant-governor, and a legislative council was planned.

More frontier wars occurred in 1897-8, first with the Waziris, then, at the incitation of a Mohammedan fanatic known as "the mad mullah," with tribes of the Swat Valley, and subsequently with their neighboring tribes. The countries of these tribes were traversed by punitive expeditions of five to fifteen thou

sand men, and "fines of money and arms" were collected. Finally, the Afridis, who had been subsidized to guard the important Khyber Pass from India to Afghanistan, suddenly rose in arms and destroyed the Khyber posts. The suppression of this revolt occupied General Sir William Lockhart and 44,000 men some six months. Ultimately the Afridis, too, "paid large fines in money and arms, and friendly relations have since been restored."

In Sept., 1898, the Right Hon. George N. Curzon, lately Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, succeeded the Earl of Elgin as Viceroy and Governor-General of India. In the following month, he was raised to the peerage as Baron Curzon of Kedleston. Lord Curzon was especially fitted to deal with the problem of the N. W. frontier, which looks toward Russia, by his travel through Persia, Central Asia and Afghanistan, as well as by his prior service in the British Foreign Office, and in India. He acquired a special interest in American

of local coöperation by enlisting for the defence of their own country but in the service of the British Government, the wild yet not wholly intractable inhabitants of the border." Lord Curzon has also fostered personal friendship with the chieftains of this borderland by entertainment of them in Calcutta. He had himself visited them on his prior travels.

To the same purpose of border-defence was directed another reform, the creation Feb., 1901, of a Frontier Province to include Peshawar, Kohat, Bannu and Dera Ismail Khan with the tribes upon their borders; and also the existing political agencies of Dir, Swat, Chitral, the Khaibar, the Kuram, Tochi and Wana. This territory of nearly 10,700 square miles contains a population of over 1,300,000 "turbulent devils," as a frontier officer describes them. The incumbent's status will be analagous to that of Colonel Yate, the chiefcommissioner and agent in Beluchistan. Another admirable feature of Lord Curzon's

eyes by his marriage in 1895 to Miss Mary V. Leiter of Washington, who now as Vicereine of India shares her husband's honors at Calcutta or Simla.

Lord Curzon's border policy has consisted of two related changes from previous practice. The extension of trans-frontier railways, which threatened to arouse warlike natives, has been abandoned for extension of cis-frontier railways in a network behind the already advanced base; and the substitution for the regular British garrisons, maintained in scattered forts beyond India's border, of tribal militia mixed of trans-border and cis-border clans. This militia will be drilled and commanded by British officers, and earn about the same pay as the Sepoy, are in fact irregular contingents of the Native Army. "These measures are intended to extricate from advanced positions the large number of regular troops stationed there for some years past; to consolidate instead of dispersing our military strength upon the border; and to set up, as it were, the sentiment

policy has been his discouragement of wasted lives and lavish expenditures by the 600 princes that still rule 70 millions of people in India. Lord Curzon instils democratic ideas into these despots, in this wise: "The native chief must learn that his revenues are not secured to him for his own selfish gratification, but for the good of his subjects; that his internal administration is exempt from correction only in proportion as it is honest; and that his gadi is not intended to be a divan of indulgence, but the stern seat of duty."

Lord Curzon has shown great firmness and courage in dealing out even-handed justice .to Englishman and Indian alike when they come into conflict; which has happened more frequently of late years, owing to English arrogance according to the Native Press, but to Native insolence according to the English Press. Finally, Lord Curzon distinguished himself again in dispatching British troops to South Africa on his own responsibility for the safe conduct of India during their absence; and also by promoting the service of Indian troops in China during the late Boxer rising. The latter was a complete innovation, and excited great emulation among Indian princes for an opportunity to serve the Government.

In 1899-1900 India suffered from a recurrence of drought and famine far more severe than the one of 1896-7. Lord Curzon's report contains the following salient facts: The agricul tural production was from a quarter to a third below the normal, which involved a loss of 250 million dollars. To this loss must be added that of some millions of cattle, making the famine the greatest on record. The liberality of Government and friends rose in equal degree. "There is no parallel in the history of India or any country in the world to the total of six million persons, who, in British India

and the native states for weeks on end have been dependent upon the charity of the Government. The famine cost ten crores (over 33,000,000 dollars) in direct expenditure, while 238 lakhs (about 8,000,000 dollars) were given to landholders and cultivators on loans and advances, besides loans to Native States." The excess of mortality in British India during the famine was half a million. "To say that the greater part of these died of starvation or even of destitution would be an unjustifiable exaggeration, since many other contributary causes have been at work." The charitable help received from all sources amounted to nearly five million dollars, which was one million less than in 1896-7. Natives gave less than might reasonably have been expected. The English colony at the Straits Settlements gave more than the Punjab. Ceylon, Hongkong, Australasia, Germany, the United States, and of course Great Britain, though the last-named less than was expected, contributed generously.

In 1901 drought and famine again prevailed, mostly in the Bombay Presidency, and in Feb. a total of 214,000 were in receipt of relief.

ARCHEOLOGY.-By far the most important event of the decade in India has lain in this recondite field; for that is nothing less than monumental identification of the birthplace of Gautama the Buddha, the founder of Buddhism. The story, as told by the late Prof. F. Max Müller, in Blackwood's Magazine, 1898, runs as follows: Accord

dia, in the seventh century; and that, according to their statements, the site of Kapilavastu must be about seven miles to the west of it. A. Führer, of the Lucknow Museum, was then dispatched by the Gov. of India to examine the site, and easily identified it by the numerous ruins of stupas, monasteries and villages. He also found another Asoka pillar, and identified it as that of the Lumbini Park. It also had been described by Hiouen-thsang, who mentioned that it was already broken into two, a statement confirmed by Dr. Führer. Its inscription declared that "King Asoka, beloved of the gods, having been anointed twenty years, himself came and worshiped, saying, Here Buddha Sakya-mun was born, and he caused a stone pillar to be erected, which declares, 'Here the Venerable was born." The Terai of Nepal had ruined by the floods from its torrential rivers, and hidden by its mud these priceless monuments of history, to be restored in these later days.

For further steps in this

interesting re

ing to the Buddhist scriptures, Kapilavastu was the capital of Sakya princes, and in the sixth centuary B. C. of the one who became father of Gautama. But Kapilavastu, and the large Lumbini Park near it, in which Gautama was said to have been born, had never been identiied, in spite of much research by modern scholars. In 1896 Major L. A. Waddell of the Government of India published his conviction that Kapilavastu would be found near a pillar discovered in 1893 in the Nepal Terai by a Nepalese officer whose name is unknown. (Major Waddell states, in Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society for 1898, at p. 203, that the digging by Nepalese officers was done in response to his letter to the Government of India.) The Major had recognized the pillar as one of the many erected by King Asoka in the third century B. C., when he visited the sacred places of Buddhism. It was found near the village of Nigliva in the

Gorakhpur district of the Northwestern

Provinces. Its inscription declared that King Asoka in the fourteenth year after his consecration enlarged the stupa of Buddha Konakamana (one of the many titles of the Buddha) for the second time and came himself to worship it. Major Waddell then pointed out that this pillar in commemoration of Konakamana was the same which Fahian, the Chinese pilgrim in the fifth century A. D., mentions, and Hiouen-thsang, another Chinese pilgrim to In

search, we must consult the record, in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society for 1898, of Mr. W. C. Peppé, a British landowner living near Kapilavastu, but across the British frontier. He turned his attention to the many mounds scattered for miles around, and finally excavated the most prominent one, lying near the village of Piprahwa, and subsequently named from it. Having dug far enough to learn that it covered a Buddhist stupa, a dome-like structure for commemoration of any event, he summoned Mr. Vincent A. Smith, Chief Secretary to the Government of the Northwestern Provinces and Oudh, and an expert archeologist, who directed the further excavation of a well ten feet square down the center of the stupa.

After digging through ten feet of earth and eighteen feet of solid brickwork set in clay, a massive sandstone coffer, about 4x3x2 feet, was revealed. It had been hollowed from a solid block of superior stone, at a cost of vast labor and expense, and weighs with its lid

two

The

1,537 pounds. This coffer contained vases, a bowl, and a box, all in soapstone, and a crystal bowl 34 incnes in diameter and 3% inches high (which is exceptionally large for crystal) and polished to perfection. These vessels contained pieces of bone, gold ornaments, beads, gold leaves variously stamped, stars, symbols, etc., several hundreds in all. smaller bowl bears scratched upon it an inscription in Pali, which is translated as follows by Prof. G. Bühler, the German Sanskritist: "This relic-shrine of divine Buddha (is the donation) of the Sakya-Sukiti-brothers, associated with their sisters, sons, and wives.' Prof. Bühler adds, "As regards the importance of the inscription, it clearly proves that Sakyas resided near Kapilavastu after Buddha's death, in accordance with the statement of the Parinibbana Sutta, which mentions the Sakyas among the claimants for Buddha's relics and as builders of a stupa. The inscription is the first Sakya document found, and it connects the Sakyas of the tradition with an indisputably historical sub-Himalayan race. I may add that, in my opinion, the inscription is older than the time of Asoka." This explicit statement was directed by Prof. Bühler against certain scholars-Senart and Kern-who support a theory of the merely mythological origin of Gautama Buddha from a sun myth.

Finally, we may add on the authority of Mr. V. A. Smith, that the position of Kapilavastu may be now defined as approximately 27 degrees 37 minutes N. latitude, and 83 degrees 8 minutes E. longitude. The Piprahwa stupa stands about half a mile from the British frontier and within Nepal. The building east of the stupa is a monastery. "The exact age of the inscription cannot as yet be settled with certainty. The record is probably older than the reign of Asoka, which, I am inclined to think, must be placed rather earlier than the current chronology allows....The Sakyas of Kapilavastu, 'as the relations of Buddha,' obtained a share of the relics of the Master at the time of the cremation. It is possible that the Piprahwa stupa, which is only 11 miles from Kapilavastu, may be that erected by the Sakya brethren immediately after the death of Gautama." In support of this view, Prof. Rhys Davids, the famous Pali scholar, adds an alternative rendering of the inscription on the bowl, as follows: "This shrine for relics of the Buddha, the August One, is that of the Sakyas, the brethren of the Distinguished One, in association with their sisters, and with their children and their wives."

These instructive relics are now preserved in the Indian Museum at Calcutta, except that the bone-relics were offered by the Government of India to H. M. the King of Siam as the sole remaining Buddhist monarch.

THE NATIVE INDIAN PRESS, and not the more expensive, and for all but a few unreadable, Anglo-Indian Press, serves as exponent for a vast population that now approximates 300 millions. In general it shows great ability, often an independent judgment; and, though critical, is only in rare exceptions disloyal to India's foreign rulers. Some intimacy with its views on leading Indian topics will throw a new and strong light upon them. Though taking a mild pro-Boer view of the events leading to

come,

more

hostilities in Africa, the Indian Press, with one accord, forgot its disagreements with the British and prayed for the speedy arrival of the victory it never doubted would while denunciation of Russia became frequent than ever. The only complaint made was that Indian troops were not allowed to share the dangers and eventual triumph of the campaign. Concerning the famine, all allow that the Government has made efforts on the whole as successful as they are gigantic and unprecedented; but many, perhaps most, protest that the causes of famine are not to be sought solely in the caprice of the seasons, but partly in the over-assessment or rack-renting by the Government of its ryots or land tenants, who generally hold permanent occupancy rights. The Britisher can, however, retort that only in Native States has there occurred any actual failure to feed the hungry, and that famines were vastly more disastrous before railways had improved transportation. There was, moreover, no effort to fight famine in those days. It was a divine visitation, and the stricken yielded. This view of famine and its commonly sequent plague has still its supporters among the Indian Press. Thus the reputable Indian Mirror of Calcutta writes: "Science, sanitary and medical, has had a free hand in Bombay; a million of money has been spent, and the plague is more virulent than ever. The Westerners, ever reliant on their science, have been compelled to reach the conclusion that God alone can send rain to fertilize the fields, and God alone can take away the plague. When we find material efforts to alleviate suffering unavailing, we must turn from the physical to the moral and spiritual plane. Our ancient Rishis foresaw these evils. and their cause, the wickedness of man, and they prescribed the remedies."

Innumerable articles are devoted to the plague, of course. The Indu-Prakash of Bombay supplies a typical instance in its plea for "the thorough establishment of the isolationat-home and trust-in-people system of plague administration," which had been introduced elsewhere in India. The method had indeed proved at once practicable, acceptable and more efficacious than compulsory segregation. To meet the recurrence of famine, the Hindu of Madras, like many another Indian paper. advises that, "The Government should annually contribute toward the formation of a famine fund of twenty millions or so, from which to meet the expenses of famine when it occurs." The Amrita Bazaar Patrika writes: "If any Governor-General of India is ever destined to fulfil that solemn and sacred pledge of the British nation, namely, that no man. Woman or child would be allowed to die of starvation, and thus to earn the choicest blessings of Heaven, it is perhaps Lord Curzon."

Personal references are less frequent than in the English and Amèrican Press, and there is no disposition whatever to pry into the pri vate life of public characters. The Viceroy and the Secretary of State, of course, receive the lion's share of attention. Indian editors ignore reports on English sports as tiresome matter, but can occasionally be drawn out to a protest like this from the Indian Mirror: "The English are passionately fond of horses and