tary of the Union, the men left Newmarket on June 29. They each wore blue ribbons, and some carried flags, while others collected money along the route. The procession was headed by a waggon drawn by one horse, on which were placarded the words Money-box,' from which one was given to understand that ample provision had been made for conveying almost any sum that would be forthcoming. Cambridge was the first town through which the procession marched, headed by two men carrying a large banner with the letters 'N.A.L.U.' embroidered on it; the procession went through the town, singing what were termed Union songs, the sale of which, on a broad sheet, at one penny each, appeared the most money-producing element in the whole affair. At the Black Swan, in Butcher Row, substantial viands had been provided by the sole liberality of Mr. Henry Thomas Hall, Town Councillor of Cambridge. An open-air meeting, at which that gentleman presided, was afterwards held on the Common. It was addressed by Mr. Hall, Mr. Taylor, and others. Resolutions were passed in favour of the men, and a collection made in aid of their support amongst the crowd. Some thousands of people were assembled. The money collected in Cambridge amounted to 25l.

"The next morning, before continuing their journey, the labourers formed into a procession, and again marched through the principal streets of Cambridge, but the enthusiasm evinced by the natives in favour of the men was not particularly great. The party then set out for Bedford, walking to Lord's Bridge, a small station on the London and North-Western Railway, whence they went by train to Gamlingay. Here they again took to the road, and marched through Potton, where they stopped for dinner, to Sandy, the remainder of the journey to Bedford being accomplished once more by the aid of the railway, where they arrived about five o'clock. Half an hour's rest and a few cups of tea and coffee having been consumed (no beer), the party again started with flags flying, and headed by a brass band, for the new Market Hill, where a meeting had been arranged for under the chairmanship of Mr. H. Wright, a landowner of Luton.

"On Wednesday the men proceeded through Olney to Northampton, where they halted for the night. They were enthusiastically received by the working inhabitants of the town and provided with refreshment. Part of the journey was done by rail.

"On Sunday night the men slept at West Bromwich, and started in the morning for Wolverhampton. The route was through Wednesbury, and a more disagreeable walk the men could not possibly have had-dirty, smoky, black-looking roads, with no scenery whatever at any part of the ten miles' journey. No stoppage of any kind was made anywhere on the route except at Wednesbury, and that was only for a minute or two. Here, and in fact all along the route, the natives seemed very much astonished at the pilgrims, but still seemed to take an interest

in them, and not a few gave them a copper or two. Wolverhampton was reached at about two o'clock, and at the entrance to the town the party were met by a very good band of music and a large crowd, as usual. Dinner took place immediately after their arrival, and was served at Mr. Walsh's factory, that gentleman bearing the expense thereof. After dinner, and when they had rested for about an hour, they again set off in procession, with the band and a large crowd of persons, to parade the streets, which they did for the next two or three hours. In the evening there was a meeting, and a large amount of money was obtained. The amount subscribed at Birmingham reached the large sum of over 150l."

It was evident that the strike was being starved out for want of funds. The employers had been emphatically victorious. They had relied with confidence on their knowledge of their own district, and of the character and habits of the population. The amount of labour hitherto employed by the Eastern Counties' farmer had as a rule been over and above what was actually needed; a margin being habitually expended on the finish and perfection for which the art in those regions was famous. Now on the present occasion, as soon as the bulk of the labourers was dismissed, all unnecessary work was at once suspended; in many places the farmer himself and his family put their hands to the business. There was a sufficient supply of new applicants, who if less skilful than those they succeeded, were competent to tide the farmer through his harvest needs. The hot summer accelerated by a week or two the termination of the strife. The harvest was more than usually prolific. After the middle of July the discontented labourers became aware that, what with machinery and new hands, the masters could dispense with their assistance, suffering nothing worse than some delay and some unimportant increase of expense. The Council of the Union saw that to subsidise the strike any longer was useless. Accordingly they announced that their funds no longer sufficing for the distribution of the customary allowances, they could henceforth only assist their clients to emigrate, either to other parts of England, or to America and Canada.

The following important resolution was passed at the weekly meeting held at Leamington by the Executive Council of the National Agricultural Labourers' Union, Mr. Joseph Arch being in the chair:-"That in the face of the harsh and prolonged lockout of the farm labourers in the Eastern Counties, this committee cannot feel justified in supporting them in enforced idleness indefinitely, nor can they seek the public support continually while the harvest is waiting to be gathered. The committee, therefore, resolve to place migration and emigration at the disposal of the labourers, or the alternative of depending upon their own resources." A committee was appointed to carry out this resolution, and the Executive Committee voted 600l. for the relief of the locked-out Unionists, whose numbers were now reduced by one-half.

The last meeting of the marching party was held at Halifax on August 8. Mr. H. Taylor, secretary to the Labourers' Union, said he recognised no defeat, and that although their funds were exhausted, the seeds of combination had been sown, and the time was not far distant when the labourers would be a mighty and intelligent power in the State. This, he said, was the last place the company of labourers would visit on the pilgrimage, and they had cleared about 700l. by their efforts. Mr. Arch, who was loudly cheered, said the root of the evil lay in the monopoly of the land, and that monopoly must be removed. It was high time the working men rose en masse and demanded a Commission for the inspection of the land; and where it was uncultivated, let the State give the owner proper value for it, take it out of his hands, and cultivate it for the people.

The remnant of the hundred "pilgrim" labourers broke up their band at Halifax on August 10, and sixteen of them returned by rail to Newmarket. The other five remained in Halifax, where they obtained work, with a good prospect of regular employment.

From some statistics collected by the National Agricultural Labourers' Union, it appears that the struggle lasted about eighteen weeks, and cost the Union, in money expended for lockout pay, migration and emigration, nearly 25,000l. Originally 2,400 men were locked out, of whom 870 returned to work without surrendering their tickets; 400 migrated, 440 emigrated, and 350 returned to work since the lock-out pay was stopped, several of these last having abandoned the Union. There were still 350 unemployed. The secretary attributed the failure of the struggle to want of union and cohesion amongst the men; the refusal of labourers to migrate to districts where work and better wages could be obtained; and the injudicious admission of old men into the Union, who expected life annuities from its funds.

CHAPTER V.

Indian Famine-Measures of Relief-Lord Northbrook's Policy-Bombay RiotsSupposed Capture of Nana Sahib-Internal Politics of India-AfghanistanMahratta Chiefs-Guicowar of Baroda-Annexation of the Fiji Islands-Zulu Revolt: Langibalele-Gold Coast: Suppression of Slavery-David LivingstoneProposed Reciprocity Treaty between Canada and United States-Government Scheme for Arctic Expedition.

THE Queen's speech on the Prorogation of Parliament contained a clause expressive of relief from a calamity which had weighed on the public mind during the early part of the year; and of appreciation of the courage and skill by which, instrumentally, that calamity had been surmounted,

"I am thankful to say," so the clause was worded, "that the famine in India has, as yet, been attended with little mortality— a result mainly attributable, under Providence, to the precautions taken by my Indian Government. The strenuous exertions of my Viceroy and of the officers serving under him merit my high approbation."

Though we have had to deal with the subject during the course of our Parliamentary survey, it will be requisite here to give some account of the scarcity as it showed itself in India, and of the local measures which were adopted to prevent several millions of natives from perishing from starvation.

The prospects of famine with which a large part of Bengal was threatened at the close of the last year, wore no more encouraging aspect when Christmas was past. Over a tract of country estimated to contain no less than twenty-eight millions of people, comprising several important provinces of Bengal and Behar, the great harvest of the year, usually garnered in December, was hopelessly withering on the ground for want of rain. In the granaries, unfortunately, the stocks were unusually low. Till the April harvest should be reaped, none of the natural supplies could be expected; and should the April harvest, too, prove a failure, the situation would be doubly serious. Sir George Campbell, Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, reviewed the situation as early as October 1873, when the failure of the autumn rains had already made the impending scarcity of three months at all events, a certainty. To meet the emergency he proposed to stop all exportation of grain from British India, to import grain into the distressed districts, and store it at convenient depôts, to provide work for those who were able to work, and to create an effective machinery for distributing gratuitous relief to those who, from age, infirmity or other causes, could not be expected to do manual labour.

Lord Northbrook was at this time at Simla. On receiving intelligence of the state of things in the distressed districts, he hastened to Calcutta, regardless of the sanitary fears which so often detain Indian officials from the headquarters of Government, and convinced that there he could best undertake the personal supervision of the arrangements which had to be made, and send and receive the necessary information. The first question he had to consider was, whether he should comply with Sir George Campbell's suggestion, and prohibit the export of all grain from India? To ordinary observers it might seem the plain and obvious dictate of common sense so to do. It would have been one of the most popular measures he could have adopted. It was strongly urged by the native press; and the Lieutenant-Governor's advocacy of it gave it the sanction of more than mere random approval. But the Viceroy had courage to think for himself and to resist the pressure that was put upon him. His reasons for refusing to forbid the export may be best expressed in the minutes which he wrote in his own justification:

"It seems to me that an export trade in food grains is a great advantage to a country in the condition of Bengal, raising its own food supplies, having no import trade in food, and whose populalation is poor. The existence of such an export insures the pro-. duction in ordinary years of more food than is required to meet the demands of the people. The natural rise of prices in times of scarcity must divert a portion of the ordinary export to home consumption, and thus a reserve easily and readily available is habitually maintained. It follows that any measure that would diminish the export trade in common rice from Bengal, would weaken the power of the country to meet any future period of scarcity. Trade is readily directed from one channel to another. The interference by Government with its free course may easily destroy it. If we refuse to supply our ordinary customers at any price, we oblige them to have recourse to other markets, and it is impossible to assume that when we want them again they will return to us. Bearing in mind, therefore, the permanent harm that might be done by an interference with the export trade in food grains, and being satisfied that the Government could without difficulty bring in a larger quantity of rice than is exported even in ordinary years, I had no hesitation in preferring the latter course. Our real difficulty in dealing with the present distress will probably be found not in any general deficiency of food supplies throughout the country, but in the transport of those supplies into the interior, and in making arrangements for distributing them."

That Lord Northbrook had decided rightly and wisely, was fully proved by the course of events, though for a time he had to encounter considerable hostility from Sir George Campbell and his supporters, among whom were to be reckoned not only persons and journals of Indian notoriety, but the most important and influential of our English newspapers, the Times itself. On the other hand, as we have already noticed, Lord Salisbury, the new Secretary of State for Indian Affairs, upheld his policy with a generous trustfulness which contributed essentially to the final happy triumph of administrative energy and sagacity over a threatened evil of fearful magnitude.

The scarcity itself assumed the worst proportions anticipated. Not only the autumn crop, but the April crop, too, proved a failure. The stock of rice which the Government had to purchase eventually, amounted in round numbers to 500,000 tons. Still there was no lack of reservoirs. The Punjaub, the North West Provinces, and Burmah, contained almost inexhaustible supplies. The Government had but to come in as a purchaser to secure a sufficiency in amount. The real difficulty was how to distribute these supplies when bought: how to pour them into the distressed districts so as to save three and-a-half millions of helpless people, for seven months, from starving. This "would in any country be a tremendous undertaking " (we quote from an article in Fraser's