England and India

THE present year has been a year of rejoicing all over the British Empire in all parts of the globe; in India it has been the most disastrous year since the country passed under British rule. A severe plague has all but depopulated the great cities of one province; a destructive earthquake has ruined the towns and villages of another; and a famine, the most widespread in its area ever known in India, has desolated the country from one extremity to the other.