Leave the 'numerical majority' to itself without
the British bayonets--a flock of sheep might as reasonably hope to manage a
troop of collies."
"This complaint about excessive growth of the army is akin to another
contention of the Congress party. They protest against the malversation of the
whole of the moneys raised by additional taxes as a Famine Insurance Fund to
other purposes. You must be aware that this special Famine Fund has all been
spent on frontier roads and defences and strategic railway schemes as a
protection against Russia."
"But there was never a special famine fund raised by special taxation and put
by as in a box. No sane administrator would dream of such a thing. In a time
of prosperity a finance minister, rejoicing in a margin, proposed to annually
apply a million and a half to the construction of railways and canals for the
protection of districts liable to scarcity, and to the reduction of the annual
loans for public works. But times were not always prosperous, and the finance
minister had to choose whether be would bang up the insurance scheme for a
year or impose fresh taxation. When a farmer hasn't got the little surplus he
hoped to have for buying a new wagon and draining a low-lying field corner,
you don't accuse him of malversation, if he spends what he has on the
necessary work of the rest of his farm.
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