ABSTRACT
The Indian famine, like the terrible visitation from which the peoples date the regeneration of Ireland, promises to lead to some permanent good. It must be the poorest of all consolations to a population perishing for lack of food, to think that out of their misery a crop of future comfort may spring up for their more fortunate descendants. The inquiries which the famine has stimulated have brought into clearer light the sufficiently humiliating fact that evils of this class are so far of our own creation that they might be averted by timely precaution. The failure of Indian crops is invariably due to one recurring cause, want of water; and this is a want which it is, and always has been, in our power to supply. The failure of Indian crops is invariably due to one recurring cause, want of water; and this is a want which it is, and always has been, in our power to supply.
