to its true value.

The table embodies facts extending over ten years, from 1868 to 1877. Part of the calculation is necessarily defective owing to the different laws of duty or different mode of keeping accounts which makes the omission of such duty in the table necessary :—

It would appear from the above table that the amount of salt imported is steadily though slowly increasing, the excessively large quantity in 1872 being counterbalanced by the small quantity in 1871; and while the price of the salt is comparatively diminishing, the duty on it is comparatively speaking stationary, and there is therefore a rise in the price of salt in India compared with the real price. For whereas the price of salt in India was three and a half times the real price in 1872, it was about four times in 1873-4, four and a half times the real price in 1875, five times in 1876, and six and four-fifths, or nearly seven times in 1877. Again, the real price of the salt imported in 1877 was less than half that of 1873, but the amount of duty paid was just the same if not more, and it is easily intelligible why the price would be double the price in 1877-78.

Now it would be important to know what is the quantity of salt consumed by the people of India. As we might expect, it is very small, but it cannot be determined very definitely. The total amount of salt sold by the Government in 1875-76 was 10,939,184 maunds (=401,847 tons), and in 1876-77 was 10,497,412

maunds (= 385,619 tons), or, on an average, 393,733 tons of salt were consumed by 191 millions of people (which is the population of British India), that is to say, 4 lbs. nearly per head every year on the average. If in this Government sale the imported salt is not included (as I have reason to believe at least partly it is, because the Government, as has been said before, purchases as well as manufactures salt), then the whole amount consumed would be 725,747 tons, or about 81 lbs. per year a head, i.e., about 21 oz. of salt every week. Of course this is more than the actual amount, as this supposes that the whole of the imported salt to have been sold, which is not actually the case. As for the trifling amount made and sold directly by native manufacturers, we need not take it into account. This would be evident from the Government report of 1876-77. There were four such factories, and they were closed that year, being, I suppose, unable to compete with the Government. From the above amount then it can be understood how much salt is taken up by India. It is only as much as would be barely necessary for the food of its people and not more, and hence it may fairly be inferred that none or next to none is used for any other purpose than eating.

I may remark en passant that among the poorest class of cultivators, in Bengal at least, salt is the only condiment used in their rice; the luxury of fish and flesh being unknown to them. Even if this were not the case, supposing that salt was not the only seasoning for the food of the poor Indians, would any man have such a common and necessary ingredient of food raised to the highest possible price? The question, of course, would be different had it been procurable only with the greatest difficulty. However necessary any article may be, everyone can conceive that if it was not easily procurable it could not be made cheap. But is this the case with salt? Is it very unprocurable in India? I think not. The sea being readily accessible, surrounding in fact one-half of the country, the water may be evaporated to any amount, and more salt than is necessary for ordinary consumption can be manufactured. The very fact that the Government is obliged to monopolise its trade, i.e., to manufacture it and sell it at any price that they choose, and to oblige every one to sell it at no less price, shows that salt is not certainly among the rareties of India.

Nay, on the contrary, it is abundant. It is almost as plentiful as air or water. Many look upon us as a feeble race, our climate as enervating and so our habits of life; but few look to our scanty and poor nourishment, and how dearly we pay even for that poor nourishment.

Another preliminary must be put in here, namely the income derived by Government from the duty on salt, as I have to refer often to it towards the conclusion of this essay. Comparing, as before, the revenues of the ten years (from 1868 to 1877) we see the average income £6,336,858 per year. The incomes on several years being as follows:

Now let us take the question, what is the result of India's not consuming salt in any other way than as a condiment; let us consider what material and scientific progress has been hindered by this low rate of consumption of salt.

Every one is aware that the soda manufacture of England is one of her great industries. It is not necessary here to give the details about it. Suffice it to say that for commercial and industrial purposes it has opened out a livelihood to many: the factories employing so many men (about 10,000 in 1861). The soda thus manufactured, besides its value in itself, forms the basis of a good many useful articles, such as soap, glass, alkali, manure, detergent material, valuable to the dyer and calico printer. Not only this, but its bye products are used in the preparation of many valuable necessaries of life. The hydrochloric acid for instance forms the basis of manufacturing bleaching powder, the muriatic acid valuable for the preparation of chemicals and drugs. Now let me give a brief sketch of these substances with the quantity that is found in India, specifying the proportion which is manufactured or otherwise produced in India.

In the manufacture of soap carbonate of soda is almost indispensable; other alkalies being dearer can be procured only in smaller quantities. This has been pointed out in the several valuable articles contributed by Mr. Carpenter to this Journal. The manufacture of soap practically speaking is unknown in India, and it can be easily imagined why it is so. Any amount of advice. or knowledge of practical methods employed in England for the manufacture of this article is of no avail unless the materials are ready at hand. Of the two constituents of soap, namely, fat and alkali, both are in a sense wanting in India; as for animal fat, India is not particularly noted for sheep or cattle farming, at any rate it does not produce much animal fat, and as for alkali, the cheapest source of alkali, namely salt, can only be procured there at enormous prices. If a soap manufactory be started under these conditions it is sure to fail in competing with the thousand and one kinds of soap imported from England. If the salt were made cheaper not only should we be benefited in having one of the greatest of industries developed in our country, but the use of soap would be more general. Very little soap is used in India, and it is pretty generally ignored among the lower and uneducated richer classes. But it might be said, if we had soda, what about the fat? Well, I have said already we have less animal fat in our country, but we have plenty of fatty oils, and of many different kinds. Why, some of these may be used instead of animal fat for some of the ordinary forms of soap. Good drainage, supply of good air and water are necessary for promoting the health of a country, but cleanliness of body is indispensable for the promotion of individual health. Cleanliness of body necessitates the cleanliness of our garments, and therefore a better and more scientific mode of bleaching and whitening them than is prevalent in India is also necessary, and hence I must refer to the next substances, namely alkalies, washing soda and bleaching powder. If these were more easily obtained they would be more generally used, and would save one of our poor and hard-working classes, viz, washermen, much trouble and disappointment. It is indeed a pitiable sight to see a washerman standing in knee-deep water, striking the halfboiled clothes with all his might and main against a roughened wooden board and earning no more than three or four shillings a

week. The rain does not lessen his work, but it lessens his earnings. As the pool gets muddy with all his labour the clothes do not get cleaner, and they do not dry quickly and are less bleached, for the sun is not there. Such is the primitive form of washing our clothes, depending on wind and rain alone to bleach them. The hard-working man fails to please his employers (especially if they are Europeans) for the garments are but imperfectly white. Whatever explanation he might give it does not satisfy his employer and is put down as an excuse for evading work, as due to his mendacious character, so he works more and earns less in such a season. If the acid and bleaching powder were given to him he would surely think that the marvellous process of heaven can only work such wonders. It would be only humane and charitable to save our fellow-men from such an amount of misdirected labour. It may be asked why we can't manufacture acids and alkalies ourselves and save our countrymen all the trouble. The answer is we have not the materials to get them from, or at any rate we can procure them only at such enormous prices that we cannot afford them.

Good dyeing, again, depends on the art of bleaching well, and in spite of the great variations in Indian dyeing this art is also in its primitive state.

The manufacture of paper, again, is also very primitive in India, only a coarse kind of straw-colored paper being manufactured. It need only be mentioned here that this industry also depends on bleaching the rags well, the rags being the cheapest source for making paper of good quality.

To the subject of manure I can do but very scanty justice. India is undoubtedly fitted for cultivation; it has naturally, by the most primitive means, yielded the most marvellous amount of crops. It is known to many that much of the land has been reduced in its richness by constantly growing the same crops on it. If so, of what great benefit would be the science of manuring the lands and restoring their richness! For the use of salt on laud I refer the reader to "Parker on the Use of Salt in Agriculture and Farming."

Now I come to the manufacture of glass. The usefulness of glass as an article for machine purposes cannot be too highly