"The saddest thing we have seen is a camp of the victims of the famine. Every little while in America we read of famines in India, but none of us know much about them, as the country is far away, and we are not bound to it by any ties of kindred. The people are so poor and so heavily taxed that it takes all they can earn to support them in times of plenty; when the crops fail they have nothing laid by to live upon, and must starve. This year they have had famines in two parts of India, one in the Madras presidency and one in Bengal, that of Madras being the worst. It is said that a million of people have died of starvation in Madras, and half that number in Bengal. Think of a number as great as all the inhabitants of New York city perishing of hunger, and then judge what a calamity it must be! "A great many persons are inclined to blame the British authorities for the famines in India, and it is undoubtedly the fact that the high taxation has much to do with the poverty of the people. On the other hand, the Government has done a great deal in the way of constructing irrigation works that will keep the land fertile in times of drought, and it has built roads so that provisions may be carried from the places where they are abundant to where they are most needed. The failure of the rains is the cause of the famines; the south-west monsoon (which brings the rain) is looked for with great anxiety all over India, and is considered of so much importance that its arrival is telegraphed to the newspapers of Europe and America. When you read in the telegraphic column that the monsoon has burst in the provinces of Central India, you may know that all fears of famine for the year are over, unless, as sometimes happens, the rains are so great in quantity that they flood the fields, and prevent the farmers from performing their work. "Notwithstanding the poverty of the people, we are told that the land-tax in India is increased every few years, and in many districts it is absolutely impossible for the people to pay it. Doctor Bronson says that thoughtful persons, who have studied the relations between England and India, say the latter country is fast going to bankruptcy in consequence of the oppressions that are steadily increasing. The taxes have grown so great that they are now more than one-eighth of all that the country produces, and in some parts of India they are one-sixth! Think of what would happen in America if one-sixth of all the wheat, corn, cotton, and other products, and a sixth of all that is manufactured was paid over for taxes. We should be in a state of poverty quite equal to these people in a short time.