§ MR. JUSTIN M'CARTHYasked the Secretary of State for India, If his attention has been called to a pamphlet entitled "The Ruin of an Indian Province," signed "Charles James O'Don-nell, Justice of the Peace for the provinces of Bengal, Behar, and Orissa," and which ascribes the periodical famines and general poverty of Behar not to 1627 any natural or unavoidable causes, but to the rack-renting of their tenantry by the landlords, the mismanagement by the Government as Court of Wards of certain vast estates, and the eviction and oppression of the farmers by European adventurers for the purpose of indigo planting, "often with the support of officials of the highest local position;" and, whether he will cause any inquiry to be made into the accuracy of the statements on which the author of the pamphlet bases the grave accusations it contains?
THE MARQUESS OF HARTINGTONMy attention has been called to, and I have read, this pamphlet. It relates, in the main, to alleged oppression of ryots by proprietors and indigo planters through abuse of the law relating to the levy of rent. This is a subject which has for a long time occupied the attention of the Government of India, and legislation has frequently been proposed to remedy evils that are admitted. The subject is at present under the consideration of a Select Committee, whose Report is almost immediately expected, and, no doubt, it will be followed by legislation. The pamphlet, however, contains allegations of so grave a character, not only as against the state of the law, but also as regards the conduct of the administration of these Provinces, that I shall certainly consider it necessary, as soon as I am able, to satisfy myself as to the nature of the evidence on which those allegations rest. But until I have had that opportunity, I am not prepared to say that I shall consider it necessary to order any investigation to be made in India.