and give us their advice.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE BEGGARS BRIGADE.

I now come to a special element of both hope and difficulty in the
solution of our Indian Social problem,--The Beggars. Here we have the
lowest stratum of the submerged tenth, excluding from them the religious
mendicants with whom we are not now concerned. I have classified them as
follows:--

1. The blind and infirm.

2. Those who help them and share the proceeds of their begging.

3. Able-bodied out of works.

Now I propose to deal with them in a way which will not call for
Legislation. In the first place it is most improbable that Government
would interfere with beggary, even if asked to do so. Certainly no such
interference would be possible without assuming the responsibility of
the entire pauper population, involving an expenditure of many million
pounds. In the second place any such interference would in all
likelihood be extremely distasteful to the native public. In the third
place I believe the question can be better dealt with in another way.

I propose to cut diamond with diamond, to set a thief to catch a thief,
to make a beggar mend a beggar. In other words my plan is to _reform_
the system rather than _abolish_ it. To the radical reformer who would
sweep out the whole "nuisance" at one stroke, this may be a
disappointment. But I believe that this feeling will be diminished, if
not entirely removed, when he has made himself familiar with the
following scheme.

Of course if the Upas tree could be uprooted and banished from our
midst,--if with a wave of his magic wand some sorcerer could make it
disappear, so much the better. But this is impossible. We should require
an axe of gold to cut down the tree; and this we do not possess. If a
rich and powerful Government shrinks from the expense of such an
undertaking, we may well be excused for doing the same.

But after all supposing that you can transform your Upas tree into a
fruit-bearing one, will not this be even better than to cut it down?
Such things are done every day before our very eyes in nature. The stock
of the crab-apple can be made to bear quinces, and a mango tree that is
scarcely worth the ground it occupies, can be made to yield fruit which
will fetch four annas a piece!

What is done in the garden is possible in human nature. And God will yet
enable us to graft into this wretched and apparently worthless Upas
stock, a bud which in coming years shal