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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