Development During Middle Childhood; The Years from Six to Twelve

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1883 Excerpt: ... Bengal, Madras, and Bombay, possess Councils of their own, and the Council of India, therefore, legislates for those Provinces which are unprovided with local Councils, or on matters of exceptional importance affecting the Empire. The Government of India is debited with the cost of the Army for all Lidia, excepting Madras aud Bombay, with the interest on debt, and, in fact, with all Imperial as distinguished from Provincial expenditure. The excess of expenditure over receipts is balanced by the aggregate surplus of all the Provinces. PROVINCES OF BBITISH INDIA. The term Presidency, which is applied to the Provinces or Governments of Bengal, Madras, and Bombay, is no longer a correct one, and in the case of Bengal is misleading. The expression is a relic of the time when the three settlements of Fort William, Fort St. George, and Bombay were each under the authority of a President, and comprised nearly the whole of the British possessions in India. Its use now frequently leads to the mistaken notion that British India is still divided into three Presidencies; whereas it comprises eight Provinces, each under its own civil government, and each independent of the others, but subordinate to the Supreme Government. (1) Bengal was placed under a LieutenantGovernor in 18S3, having previously been part of the charge of the Governor-General. It occupies the deltas of the Ganges, and Brahmaputra, and is flanked on the east by mountains which separate it from the valley of the Irrawaddy. For the most part the province is a great alluvial plain, producing rice, and is the most populous and productive in all British India. Onssa and Chota Nagpore, to the west and south-west, are ill watered and liable to drought. The chief products, besides rice, are opium, ...