INDIAN FAMINES - Institute for Social and Economic Change

HISTORICAL FAMINES. 25
contrary, it is but lately that documents bearing
on the subject have been brought to the
light of day; and even those available only
perform the part of the light wind on a cloudy
day, which blows away some of the lower
fleecy clouds, but still leaves behind a dark
impenetrable mass.
We have two accounts of this famine, both
of which rest on the same foundation-viz.,
documents of the East India Company-and
they are therefore practically identical. One
is Dr Hunter's, to which I have already
referred, and to which access may be had
by anyone. His graphic description of the
sufferings of the people would, no doubt, be
the popular one, while his appendix cites the
principal official documents bearing on the subject.
The other account is by Sir G. Campbell,
which is appended to the Orissa Famine Commissioners'
Report. Besides these, we have jive
lines devQted to the subject by Mill, in his otherwise
generally detailed 'History of India,' which
scanty notice is justly complained of by Dr
Hunter. Not because it affords us any original
information, but for the purpose of illustrating