DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.614#0404
BENABES, PAST AND PBESENT. 361
by what it has already effected. It has reduced anarchy
to order, given law, established justice, protected the
land from invasion, and prevented it from being ravaged
by intestine wars. It has suppressed suttee and dacoity,
forbidden human sacrifices, repressed infanticide, and
made slavery illegal. It has woven a network of tele-
graphs around the empire, from Galle to Peshawur, and
from Peshawur to Eangoon. It has established a regular
system of postage for letters, papers, and books, at low
charges and uniform rates. It lias improved old roads,
and made new ones, sent steamers up the principal
streams, constructed a canal nine hundred miles long,
and will, probably, soon construct others in the valleys
of the Mahanaddy, the Eistna, and the Godavery. It
has commenced a system of railways, embracing about
five thousand miles of trunk lines, at a cost of nearly
three thousand millions of dollars, which, when com-
pleted, will unite the extremes of the Peninsula, open
hitherto inaccessible tracts, and bring all parts close
to each other and to the civilized world. Already the
steam-horse traverses the Gangetic valley from Calcutta
to Delhi, crosses the Peninsula from Madras to the
western shore, and prances from Bombay to Eagpore.
?* It has steadily increased the trade of the country,—
which, before the days of Clive, could be conveyed in a
single Venetian frigate,—until it now reaches nearly five
hundred millions of dollars annually. It has raised the
revenues of the government to two hundred and fifteen
millions. It has given India the newspaper, that great
educator; so that there are twenty-eight newspapers pub-
lished weekly in Bengal,—three of them in English, by
by what it has already effected. It has reduced anarchy
to order, given law, established justice, protected the
land from invasion, and prevented it from being ravaged
by intestine wars. It has suppressed suttee and dacoity,
forbidden human sacrifices, repressed infanticide, and
made slavery illegal. It has woven a network of tele-
graphs around the empire, from Galle to Peshawur, and
from Peshawur to Eangoon. It has established a regular
system of postage for letters, papers, and books, at low
charges and uniform rates. It lias improved old roads,
and made new ones, sent steamers up the principal
streams, constructed a canal nine hundred miles long,
and will, probably, soon construct others in the valleys
of the Mahanaddy, the Eistna, and the Godavery. It
has commenced a system of railways, embracing about
five thousand miles of trunk lines, at a cost of nearly
three thousand millions of dollars, which, when com-
pleted, will unite the extremes of the Peninsula, open
hitherto inaccessible tracts, and bring all parts close
to each other and to the civilized world. Already the
steam-horse traverses the Gangetic valley from Calcutta
to Delhi, crosses the Peninsula from Madras to the
western shore, and prances from Bombay to Eagpore.
?* It has steadily increased the trade of the country,—
which, before the days of Clive, could be conveyed in a
single Venetian frigate,—until it now reaches nearly five
hundred millions of dollars annually. It has raised the
revenues of the government to two hundred and fifteen
millions. It has given India the newspaper, that great
educator; so that there are twenty-eight newspapers pub-
lished weekly in Bengal,—three of them in English, by