period of three years, there has been a decrease in the consumption
amounting to 59,448 tons, which will involve a loss to the revenue of
416,136_l_. [Footnote: The _Friend of India_ was incorrect in
this statement the real decline in the consumption of salt was about
12,000 tons.] Salt is one of those articles that people in India will
use as much of as they can afford, and the diminution in the consumption
appears to me to be a decided proof of the declining condition of the
population, and that must affect adversely the revenue of the Indian
Government. Now there is another point to which the right hon. Gentleman
has slightly alluded; it is connected with the administration of
justice, and I will read from the _Friend of India_ a case
illustrative of the efficiency of the police. The statement is so
extraordinary that it would be incredible but for the circumstance of
its having appeared in such a respectable journal:--

'The affair itself is sufficiently uninteresting. A native
Zemindar had, or fancied he had, some paper rights over
certain lands occupied by a European planter, and, as a
necessary consequence, sent a body of armed retainers to
attack his factory. The European resisted in the same
fashion by calling out his retainers. There was a pitched
battle, and several persons were wounded, if not slain;
while the Darogah, the appointed guardian of the peace, sat
on the roof of a neighbouring hut and looked on with an
interest, the keenness of which was probably not diminished
by the fact of his own immunity from the pains and perils of
the conflict. There has been a judicial investigation, and
somebody will probably be punished, if not by actual
sentence, by the necessary disbursement of fees and
douceurs, but the evil will not be thereby suppressed or