British rule would have nothing to justify its presence in such a country as Burma if it did not evidently make for the well-being of the people. In this chapter we have to consider the initiation of those measures that have been adopted with this view, and to ascertain how far they are likely to secure it. Five years is not a period of time from which much can be expected by way of results, but it is long enough for us to form an estimate of the kind of beginning that has been made. Under Burmese rule no attempt was made at a division of the work of the executive into departments. Each minister of state was considered eligible to take charge of any and every post in the state, whether judicial, revenue, military or what not, just as in England, as Macaulay tells us, until comparatively recent times, any gentleman, if he possessed sufficient interest, might aspire to command a man-of-war, and naval and military commands were more or less interchangeable. But we have got far beyond that now, and our Indian Government is a model of efficiency and business-like working, the officers of some departments being professionally educated for them, and in others, specially trained for the work. The state of the public revenue is always some test of the industrial and fiscal conditions of a country. Beginning with the first year of the annexation, the income for the five years has steadily and rapidly risen:— Rupees. In 1886-87 the revenue was 2,200,000 1887-88 ” ” 5,010,000 1888-89 ” ” 7,683,450 1889-90 ” ” 8,638,170 1890-91 ” ” 9,400,000 To the amount for the last year a considerable sum might fairly be added on account of the earnings of the new line of railway to Mandalay. Under the Burman king the revenue never exceeded 10,000,000 rupees, and during King Theebaw’s reign it had fallen to 9,000,000, and fully one-third of this amount accrued from monopolies and imposts on trade and industry, that the British Government has very properly abolished; so that, although we took over the country at a very great disadvantage, we have already raised the revenue, by healthy and legitimate means (excepting the excise), to an amount equal to what it ever was before. There can be no doubt that a career of prosperity awaits Upper Burma, and that the steady increase in the revenue indicates that it has already entered upon that career. The testimony of the revenue officers is that it is, as a rule, collected without difficulty, and that the taxation does not fall at all heavily on the people. The chief item is a kind of capitation or household tax, averaging 10 rupees per house per year. This is levied as a lump sum on each village, and the payment is distributed amongst the families of the village, according to their means and circumstances, by a committee of village elders—a method they are accustomed to, and that seems to work well.