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 To Penélope
for
Oliver Anthony
with love
This page intentionally left blank
A PERSONAL MESSAGE FROM
THE AUTHOR
The economic and social development of poor countries, and reduc-
ing divisions in the world economy between rich are poor, are two of
the greatest challenges facing mankind. Vast differences in income and
wealth between countries and peoples are not only morally indefensible
but also a grave threat to peace and stability in the world.
The great English economist John Maynard Keynes once described
what drew him to economics; it was, he said, ‘its intellectual rigour
combined with its potentiality for good’. He treated the subject of
economics as a moral science, the purpose of which is to understand
(Courtesy of Spencer
economic behaviour and thereby to be able to design policies to make
Scott of the University of the world a more civilized place in which to live. It is this ‘potentiality
Kent photographic unit) for good’ that attracts to development economics so many of today’s
top economists.
I have written this textbook on the economics of development so that students can apply
their knowledge of economics to the plight of poor countries in the hope that they will better
understand the divided world in which we live and think about issues of development in whatever
capacity they may subsequently work.
I have been teaching development economics for over forty years and have encountered
thousands of students in different parts of the world and from different countries, many of
whom have gone on to work in the development field – as employees in international institutions
and non-governmental organizations concerned with economic and social development, or as
teachers and researchers in poor countries. If new generations of students studying development
economics are inspired to do the same, this volume will have achieved its purpose.
I hope you will enjoy the book, and that when you reach the end you will feel that the study of
the economics of development has enriched your experience as an economist and citizen of the
world.
Wherever you live, I wish you good luck in your studies.
This page intentionally left blank
 xi

BRIEF CONTENTS
Part I Development and underdevelopment
1 The study of economic development 3
2 The development gap and the measurement of poverty 25
3 The characteristics of underdevelopment and structural
change 70
4 The role of institutions in economic development 117
5 Theories of economic growth: why growth rates differ between countries 130

Part II Factors in the development process

6 The role of agriculture and surplus labour for industrialization 179
7 Capital accumulation, technical progress and techniques of production 227

Part III The perpetuation of underdevelopment

8 Dualism, centre–periphery models and the process of cumulative causation 261
9 Population and development 284

Part IV The role of the state, the allocation of resources, and

sustainable development
10 Resource allocation in developing countries, and sustainable development 305
11 Project appraisal, social cost–benefit analysis and shadow wages 330
12 Development and the environment 351

Part V Financing economic development

13 Financing development from domestic resources 385
14 Foreign assistance, aid, debt and development 437
xii BRIEF CONTENTS

Part VI International trade, the balance of payments and development

15 Trade theory, trade policy and economic development 501
16 The balance of payments, international monetary assistance and
development 561
 xiii

CONTENTS
List of Figures xxii
List of Tables xxv
List of Case Examples xxvii
Preface xxviii
Universal Declaration of Human Rights xxxiii
Acknowledgements xxxiv

Part I Development and underdevelopment

1 The study of economic development 3
Introduction 4
Development economics as a subject 5
Academic interest in development 6
A new international economic order 11
Globalization and interdependence of the world economy 14
The meaning of development and the challenge of development economics 18
The perpetuation of underdevelopment 20
Summary 22
Discussion questions 22
Websites 23

2 The development gap and the measurement of poverty 25

Introduction 26
The development gap and income distribution in the
world economy 27
Measures of inequality and historical trends 27
International inequality (unweighted and weighted) 34
Global (or world) inequality 36
The measurement and comparability of per capita income 37
Purchasing power parity (PPP) 38
Per capita income as an index of development 40
Measuring poverty 42
Meeting the Millennium Poverty Reduction Target 45
xiv CONTENTS

Tackling poverty from the ‘grass roots’ 47

Human Poverty Index and Human Development Index 52
Can the poor countries ever catch up? 53
Summary 67
Discussion questions 67
Notes 68
Websites on poverty and income distribution 69

3 The characteristics of underdevelopment and structural

change 70
Introduction 71
The dominance of agriculture and petty services 71
Low level of capital accumulation 73
Rapid population growth 75
Exports dominated by primary commodities 76
The curse of natural resources 77
Weak institutional structures 78
Other dimensions of the development gap 80
Inequality: vertical and horizontal 84
Growth and distribution 90
Poverty-weighted growth rates 91
Nutrition and health 92
Famine 97
Food production 100
Stages of development and structural change 101
Rostow’s stages of growth 104
Diversification 108
Industrialization and growth 108
Kaldor’s growth laws 110
Summary 114
Discussion questions 114
Notes 115
Websites on health, nutrition, famine, education, structural change
and income distribution 116

4 The role of institutions in economic development 117

Introduction 118
The role of institutions 118
Measuring institutions and the debate on institutions versus
geography 121
The role of democracy 125
Summary 127
Discussion questions 128
Note 129
Websites on institutions and market behaviour 129
 CONTENTS xv

5 Theories of economic growth: why growth rates differ between countries 130
Introduction 131
Classical growth theory 132
The Harrod–Domar growth model 140
Neoclassical growth theory 146
The production function approach to the analysis of growth 150
Production function studies of developing countries 158
‘New’ (endogenous) growth theory and the macrodeterminants of growth 162
‘Growth diagnostics’ and binding constraints on growth 171
Summary 173
Discussion questions 174
Notes 174
Websites on growth theory 175

Part II Factors in the development process

6 The role of agriculture and surplus labour for industrialization 179
Introduction 180
The role of agriculture in development 180
Barriers to agricultural development 183
Land reform 189
The supply response of agriculture 191
Transforming traditional agriculture 193
The growth of the money economy 196
Finance for traditional agriculture 198
The interdependence of agriculture and industry 199
Economic development with unlimited supplies of labour 200
A model of the complementarity between agriculture and industry 204
Rural–urban migration and urban unemployment 207
Disguised unemployment: types and measurement 210
Incentives and the costs of labour transfer 215
Summary 217
Appendix: the functioning of markets in agrarian societies 218
The land market 218
The labour market 221
Credit markets 222
Interlocked markets 224
Institutions and decision-making in agriculture 224
Discussion questions 225
Notes 225
Websites on agriculture 226

7 Capital accumulation, technical progress and techniques of production 227

Introduction 228
The role of capital in development 228
Technical progress 231
xvi CONTENTS

Capital- and labour-saving technical progress 232

How societies progress technologically 234
Learning 236
Investment in human capital: education 236
Women’s education 240
Infrastructure investment 242
Technology and the developing countries 243
Techniques of production 245
The conflict between employment and output and employment and saving in
the choice of techniques 249
Employment versus output 249
Employment versus saving 251
Wages and the capital intensity of production 252
Different classes’ propensity to consume 253
Support of the unemployed 253
Are consumption and investment distinct? 254
Taxes and subsidies 254
Future policy 255
Summary 256
Discussion questions 257
Notes 257
Websites on technology and investment 258
Website on choice of techniques 258

Part III The perpetuation of underdevelopment

8 Dualism, centre–periphery models and the process of
cumulative causation 261
Introduction 262
Dualism 262
The process of cumulative causation 264
Regional inequalities 267
International inequality and centre–periphery models 269
Two models of ‘regional’ growth rate differences: Prebisch and Kaldor 271
The new economic geography 276
Theories of dependence and unequal exchange 278
Unequal exchange 280
Summary 281
Discussion questions 282
Notes 283

9 Population and development 284

Introduction 285
Facts about world population 285
The determinants of fertility 288
The costs and benefits of population growth 291
 CONTENTS xvii

Population and the growth of cities 294

Simon’s challenge 295
The ‘optimum’ population 297
A model of the low-level equilibrium trap 299
Summary 301
Discussion questions 302
Notes 302
Websites on population 302

Part IV The role of the state, the allocation of resources, and

sustainable development
10 Resource allocation in developing countries, and sustainable development 305
Introduction 306
The market mechanism and market failures 306
The role of the state 308
Corruption 311
Failed states 316
Development plans 316
The allocation of resources: the broad policy choices 317
Industry versus agriculture 319
The comparative cost doctrine 319
Present versus future consumption 320
Choice of techniques 322
Balanced versus unbalanced growth 322
Investment criteria 326
Summary 327
Discussion questions 328
Notes 328
Websites on government and corruption 329

11 Project appraisal, social cost–benefit analysis and shadow wages 330

Introduction 331
Project appraisal 331
Financial appraisal 332
Economic appraisal 333
Divergences between market prices and social values 334
Economic prices for goods 335
Non-traded goods and conversion factors 336
Traded goods 338
Shadow prices for factors of production 338
The social rate of discount 339
The social cost of investment 339
The shadow wage rate 340
A closer examination of the change in consumption in industry and agriculture 342
The valuation of production forgone and the increase in consumption 343
xviii CONTENTS

A numerical calculation of the shadow wage 343

Social appraisal 344
The equivalence of the Little–Mirrlees formulation of the shadow wage and the
UNIDO approach 346
Is it worth valuing all goods at world prices? 347
The application of the Little–Mirrlees and UNIDO approaches to
project appraisal 347
Summary 349
Discussion questions 349
Notes 350
Websites on project appraisal 350

12 Development and the environment 351

Introduction 352
A model of the environment and economic activity 353
The market-based approach to environmental analysis 354
Externalities 355
Common property rights 358
The discount rate 359
The harvesting of renewable resources 360
Non-renewable resources 361
Other environmental values 363
Measuring environmental values 364
National income accounting 366
Risk and uncertainty 367
Economic growth and the environment 368
Sustainable development 369
Natural capital, equity and environmental values 370
Economic thought and the environment 373
Climate change and the Stern Review 373
Climate change and the poor 376
International agencies, agreements and the environment 377
Summary 379
Discussion questions 380
Notes 380
Websites on the environment 381

Part V Financing economic development

13 Financing development from domestic resources 385
Introduction 386
Forms of saving 387
The prior-savings approach 392
The capacity to save 393
The willingness to save 395
Financial systems and economic development 397
 CONTENTS xix

The informal financial sector 398

Monetization and money market integration 399
Developing a banking system 400
Rural financial intermediaries and micro-credit 402
Development banks 405
Financial intermediaries 406
Financial liberalization 407
Fiscal policy and taxation 413
Tax reform in developing countries 419
Inflation, saving and growth 420
The Keynesian approach to the financing of development 420
Reconciling the prior-saving and forced-saving approaches to development 424
The quantity theory approach to the financing of development 424
The dangers of inflation 427
Inflation targeting 428
Inflation and growth: the empirical evidence 428
The inflationary experience 430
The structuralist–monetarist debate in Latin America 433
Summary 434
Discussion questions 435
Notes 436
Websites on banking and finance 436

14 Foreign assistance, aid, debt and development 437

Introduction 438
The role of foreign borrowing 438
Dual-gap analysis and foreign borrowing 439
Models of capital imports and growth 442
Capital imports, domestic saving and the capital–output ratio 444
Types of international capital flows 445
The debate over international assistance to developing countries 445
The motives for official assistance 446
The critics of international aid 447
The macroeconomic impact of aid 449
The total net flow of financial resources to developing countries 453
Official development assistance (ODA) 454
Total net flow of financial resources from DAC countries 456
UK assistance to developing countries 456
The recipients of official assistance 459
Aid tying 463
Remittances 464
Multilateral assistance 465
World Bank activities 466
Structural adjustment lending 468
Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers 471
Estimating the aid component of international assistance 471
xx CONTENTS

The distribution of international assistance 475

Schemes for increasing the flow of revenue 476
Foreign direct investment and multinational corporations 478
International debt and debt–service problems 481
Optimal borrowing and sustainable debt 486
The debt crisis of the 1980s 488
Debt relief 489
The highly indebted poor country initiative (HIPC) 490
Debt rescheduling 492
Debt–service capping 493
Debt buy-backs and debt swaps 493
Long-term solutions 494
Summary 495
Discussion questions 496
Notes 496
Websites on aid, remittances, debt and FDI 497

Part VI International trade, the balance of payments and development

15 Trade theory, trade policy and economic development 501
Introduction 502
Trade and growth 502
The gains from trade 505
The static gains from trade 506
The dynamic gains from trade 509
Trade as a vent for surplus 510
Theory of customs unions and free trade areas 510
Free trade enthusiasm in the modern era 514
Measurement and process of trade liberalization 515
Models of export-led growth 517
What you export matters 520
Trade liberalization and export growth 521
Trade liberalization, import growth and the balance of payments 522
Trade liberalization and economic performance 524
Trade liberalization, poverty and domestic inequality 526
Trade liberalization and international inequality 532
Disadvantages of free trade for development 533
Theory of protection: tariffs versus subsidies 535
Effective protection 537
Import substitution versus export promotion 539
The Prebisch doctrine 540
Technical progress and the terms of trade 540
The income elasticity of demand for products and the balance of payments 542
Recent trends in the terms of trade 543
Fair trade not free trade 546
Trade strategy for development 548
 CONTENTS xxi

International commodity agreements 551

Trade versus aid 556
Summary 558
Discussion questions 559
Notes 559
Websites on trade 560

16 The balance of payments, international monetary assistance and

development 561
Introduction 562
Balance-of-payments-constrained growth 562
The terms of trade 565
The exchange rate and devaluation 566
The IMF supply-side approach to devaluation 568
The growth of world income and structural change 569
Application of the balance-of-payments-constrained growth model 569
Capital flows 571
Exchange-rate systems for developing countries 573
The East Asian financial crisis: a cautionary tale 577
The international monetary system and developing countries 583
How the IMF works 585
Ordinary drawing rights 586
Extended Fund Facility (EFF) 586
Special facilities 587
Other IMF activities 592
Criticisms of the IMF 593
The results of IMF programmes 595
Special Drawing Rights and the developing countries 596
Summary 599
Discussion questions 600
Notes 600
Websites on balance of payments and the IMF 601

References and Further Reading 602

Name Index 636
Subject Index 643
Geographic Index 673
xxii

LIST OF FIGURES
2.1 Lorenz curve diagram 34
2.2 Distribution of world income (percentage of total, with quintiles of population
ranked by income) 38
2.3 Percentage of people in the world at different poverty levels, 2005 45
3.1 The law of diminishing returns 72
3.2 Natural resources and economic growth 77
3.3 Relation between productivity and energy intake 93
3.4 The distribution of the labour force 2005 (%) 103
3.5 The distribution of output 2005 (%) 103
3.6 Association between growth of industry and growth of GDP 108
5.1 Ricardo’s model of the economy 137
5.2 Adjustment of gw and gn 144
5.3 The ‘labour-intensive’ form of the neoclassical production function 148
5.4 Equilibrium capital–labour ratio and output per head 148
5.5 The production function 151
5.6 Production function diagram 152
5.7 The effect of increasing returns 152
5.8 Kaldor’s technical progress function 165
6.1 Marginal product of successive units of labour added to the land 201
6.2 Tendency towards diminishing returns 202
6.3 Industrial/capitalist sector 202
6.4 Industrial terms of trade and agricultural growth rate 205
6.5 Industrial terms of trade and industrial growth rate 206
6.6 Growth equilibrium and disequilibrium 206
6.7 Disguised unemployment 210
6.8 The dynamic surplus 212
6.9 Effect of labour withdrawal 213
6.10 Maximum sustainable labour 214
6.11 The possibility of negative marginal product 215
6.12 Backward-bending supply curve 215
6.13 The social valuation of labour 216
7.1 Capital-saving technical progress 232
7.2 Labour-saving technical progress 233
7.3 Neutral technical progress 233
 LIST OF FIGURES xxiii

7.4 Optimal choice of technique 245

7.5 Different wages: same technique 247
7.6 Efficiency frontier 250
7.7 Employment versus saving 251
7.8 Preserving the level of saving through taxation 255
8.1 Region A 265
8.2 Region B 265
8.3 Convergent–divergent growth 275
8.4 The theory of unequal exchange 281
9.1 Past and projected world population, AD 1–2150 287
9.2 Past and projected population growth rates 287
9.3 Past and projected fertility 288
9.4 Fertility rate and female literacy, 1990 289
9.5 Population momentum 291
9.6 Maximization of average product 298
9.7 The ‘optimum’ population 298
9.8 Low-level equilibrium trap 300
9.9 Leibenstein’s approach 301
10.1 Welfare maximization 307
10.2 Functions of the state 315
10.3 Induced decision-making 324
11.1 The optimal shadow wage 340
12.1 Environmental indicators at different country income levels 352
12.2 A simple model of the relationships between the economy and the
environment 353
12.3 Marginal benefits and environmental costs of a dam 356
12.4 Taxation, marginal benefits and costs of a dam 357
12.5 Relation between the growth and stock of a renewable resource 360
12.6 Economic rent and the use of a non-renewable resource 362
12.7 Sources of CO2 emissions 375
13.1 The Keynesian absolute income hypothesis 393
13.2 The McKinnon–Shaw argument 408
13.3 Inflation tax 425
13.4 Inflation and per capita income growth, 1960–92 (pooled annual
observations, 127 countries) 429
13.5 Effects of different inflation rates on growth 429
14.1 Official development assistance (ODA), 1950–2010 454
14.2 Ratio of ODA to GNI, 1960–2005 455
14.3 Estimated workers’ remittances to developing countries by region in 2005
(US$ billion) 464
14.4 Debt–export ratio and growth 487
15.1 The relation between export growth and GDP growth across 133 countries,
1995–2006 503
15.2 Gains from trade 507
15.3 Gains and losses within a customs union 512
15.4 The share of world trade in world output, 1960–2006 514
xxiv LIST OF FIGURES

15.5 The trade-off between growth and the balance of payments 524
15.6 Welfare gains and losses from protection 536
15.7 Tariffs and subsidies 537
15.8 Movements in the terms of trade 541
15.9 Asymmetrical cycles 541
15.10 Nominal and real price indices of non-food primary commodities, 1862–1999 544
15.11 Keynes’s commod-control scheme 552
15.12 Price compensation and export earnings 555
Random documents with unrelated
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 "If it is about my affairs—" John began.

"It is about your affairs. The cause comes on the day

after to-morrow. That is, it is down for hearing then."

"You know," said John, hastily, "that I have wiped my

hands of it long ago."

"Oh yes, I know; and you have left us poor lawyers to

take our chances of victory or defeat at our own cost. Come
now; what shall I pay you down for the Tincroft estate in
nubibus?—win or lose."

John shook his head. "I never gamble," said he.

"And you are wise. Look here, Tincroft; since we last

talked about this business, and that was a good while ago,
some changes have been going on in the world."

"No doubt; but I don't see the papers now," said stolid
John.

"You ought to see them. But I suppose you think that

because the old Greeks and Romans did without
newspapers you can do without them too. But you are
wrong. By the way, you have heard of the Augean stables,
no doubt?"

John thought he had—was sure he had.

"And of the labours of Hercules?"

"Yes," John had heard of them too—strange if he hadn't.

"Well, Hercules is come to life again, and has got a new

broom, and our Augean stables are being swept out. But I
am talking Greek to you, I suppose."
 "Worse than Greek. I don't understand you a bit, Mr.
Roundhand."

"Ah! You'll see. By the way, do you happen to know who

is Lord Chancellor now?"

John did not know even that.

"I don't suppose you do. He is the new broom I was

telling you of, and he is sweeping out the Augean stables—
our Augean stables—with a vengeance. There will be
nothing left for us lawyers to fatten on soon, they say. But it
is an ill wind that blows no one any good; and you will be all
the better for it—you'll see. You won't go with me to
Westminster, I suppose?"

"I do not understand you, Mr. Roundhand," John

reiterated; "only that you seem in high spirits," he added.

"And you are not so infected. Well, I'll go. You shall hear
from me again soon."

"I am always pleased to see you, you know, Mr.

Roundhand," said John.

"Ah! You'll have reason to say so this day week,

perhaps. We shall see."

And so he departed, leaving Tincroft in a brown study.

For John had lately become more addicted to brown studies
than ever. And not altogether without reason. At any rate he
had more than one source of disquietude. The first was in
the unprofitable nature of his engagements. Do what he
might, he had found that grinding mathematics and classics
in boarding schools at so much an hour (with frequent gaps
between), is about on a par with brickmaking. To
supplement this occupation, he had lately tried his hand (as
his father Josiah had done before him) at literary
composition, but thus far had failed in making any
impression on stony-hearted editors. So, if the truth must
be told, he was more than ever under a cloud, for his small
reserve fund was melting slowly away.

Next, our friend was under much concern regarding the

health and comfort of the poor girl who was now his wife.
He had conscientiously performed his promises, he had
sought to make her happy; and he had found, if not
happiness, yet a degree of quiet repose in this union, which
perhaps compensated in some measure for the absence of
more congenial companionship, which he might have found
in a more intellectual and cultivated help-meet. I believe he
was even proud of his young wife, and though her bloom
was somewhat faded, John loved, as of yore, to sit by her
side (not now on a knobby chair, though a cheap one) and
contemplate the charms which had first enthralled him. Be
this as it might, I know that he cherished her as a thing of
price, and would not allow, so far as he could prevent, his
own anxious cares for the future to disturb her mind.

And Sarah seemed grateful to her John, and desirous of

pleasing him; very submissive, too, to his little whims, she
would have been, I think, and very indulgent to his
peculiarities, if there had been any need for submission and
indulgence. But, notwithstanding all this, poor Sarah pined.
She missed the fresh air and the freedom, perhaps, of her
native place, and of High Beech Farm, with all its
drawbacks. John had watchfully noticed this almost from
the first; and now, of late, during the last six months—
dating, let us say, from the evening of the fireworks—she
had more manifestly fallen off in health and spirits, giving
way sometimes to tears on very slight occasions, as John
thought, which perplexed him mightily.
 In truth, on looking back, John remembered that on
that very evening just mentioned, on their return from the
pyrotechnics, Sarah was suddenly seized with violent
shakings and tremblings, which terminated in hysterics as
soon as they reached their own little parlour. And he had
reproached himself at the time, as he still did, for having
kept his tender little wife too long standing on the damp
ground and in the miasmatic air of the river-side meadow.
Perhaps Tom Grigson could have better accounted for this
sudden affection; but he was a good fellow, and he did not.

Another of Tincroft's worries was in the increasing

necessity felt by his mother-in-law for those afternoon
"lyings down" which used to excite his sympathy, as well as
puzzle him, but the too obvious cause of which began
slowly to dawn on John's unsuspicious and unimaginative
mind.

With all these cares, however, John was not unhappy. To

a considerable degree they were counteracted by the Mens
conscia recti, which, at any rate, lightened his burden. Then
his friend Grigson was constant.

And, lastly, if he wanted a little good solid talk, was not

there his old friend Mrs. Elizabeth Barry, with her cheerful,
old-fashioned piety (old-fashioned, I mean, in her way of
expressing it), and her favourite hymn-book, of which John
became at last positively enamoured. He was ever a
welcome guest at the Barrys; and in virtue of his family
relationship to the obese old lady, Sarah was admitted into
her presence-chamber, not altogether without a beneficial
effect. And this connection was advantageous in obtaining
for Sarah the sometimes help and sometimes sympathy and
sometimes cheering companionship of little Mrs. Barry the
younger, when John was away on his professional
engagements, or racking his brains (alas, in vain it
seemed!) in a small closet about nine feet square, which he
called his study.

But a change was impending; and to show how "great

events from little causes spring" (am I right in my
quotation?), his gracious Majesty of Great Britain and
Ireland was little aware how he was helping of John
Tincroft's fortunes when, on a certain trivial occasion, he
changed his Cabinet Ministers, and, of necessity, appointed
a new Lord Chancellor.

"Tincroft v. Tincroft.—This suit is at last ended in favour

of the Sussex branch of the family. His lordship, in giving
judgment, remarked that whatever doubts or uncertainties
in relation to the legitimate heirship of John Tincroft, the
claimant of that branch, might formerly have been
entertained, had been entirely removed by the latest
evidence produced in his favour." So the newspapers report.

"I congratulate you with all my heart," said Mr.

Roundhand when next they met. "You won't be a rich man,
you know; but there is the estate, such as it is,
unencumbered; and though the funded property has been
pretty considerably reduced, and may be more so before
affairs are finally wound up, there will be something to
patch up the old house with, and to give you a fixed
income, if a small one."

"And I congratulate you too with a 'Hip, hip, hurrah!'"

shouted Tom Grigson, who had come in with the lawyer.
"And won't Dick be pleased? I tell you what, we must have
another picnic for this, only it must be in the Tincroft
grounds this time."

"It shall be as you please, Tom," said John, faintly, and

with a bewildered air, for the news had come upon him
suddenly and unexpectedly. He had never less believed in
the breaking of the cloud under which he had lain all his
life, notwithstanding all his lawyer had said, than at the
very moment when, looking up, he saw that the cloud was
gone.

On the whole, however, John Tincroft conducted himself

with tolerable composure as soon as he clearly understood
his altered circumstances.

"I am glad of it for Sarah's sake," he said. "Poor dear

Sarah! She will rally now, I hope. It will be pleasant for her
to live in the country again."

And so, after a while, they went to live in the country,

John Tincroft and his Sarah, and Sarah's mother. And they
had, instead of a picnic, what they called a "house-
warming," at which were present Mr. Richard Grigson and
his brother Tom, Mr. Rubric, Mr. Rackstraw, Mr. Roundhand,
and his confidential clerk Mr. Foster, with sundry others. It
took time to bring this about, however, for the old
dilapidated house first had to be made habitable, and its
grounds presentable to strangers. And after all, as the
lawyer had predicted, Tincroft's means of keeping up
appearances and entertaining visitors were limited within
narrow bounds.

Great expectations were excited around Tincroft House,

and in the not far-off town of Trotbury, when it was known
that a real Tincroft—the Tincroft—was coming to enjoy his
own again. Tradesmen of all degrees, from the showy
upholsterer of Trotbury to the indispensable butcher, baker,
and grocer of the immediate village, looked forward to an
accession of custom, and left their cards at the door. The
cards were graciously received; but little came of it. A
family of three, living in a few rooms in a large mansion,
the rest being shut up, was not likely to make the fortunes
of many tradespeople. So they drew off disgusted, as their
way too often is.

In truth it was a quiet recluse kind of life that John

began to lead in his new home. He cultivated no
friendships, and was soon dropped by the few wealthier
neighbours who at first made some advances towards his
acquaintance. In a short space of time, therefore, Tincroft
House seemed to have returned almost to its former
condition.

Nevertheless, this way of life suited John Tincroft

perhaps better than any other would have done. He could
study if and when he pleased. He could put pen to paper
without caring much about the "declined with thanks" which
had formerly damped his ardour; for if the editors would not
print his lucubrations, he could read them in manuscript to
his young wife, though poor Sarah was no wiser when he
had done than she had been before; and this served his
purpose. And, finally, he could cultivate his own cabbages
and gather his own apples, and that privilege, he did not
count as nothing.
 At times, too, he received visitors. Now that he had
obtained the estate, such as it was, his London relative, Mr.
Rackstraw, found it pleasant enough to run down into the
country for a few days in the autumn, under pretence Of
shooting, when he took up free quarters at Tincroft House,
and talked somewhat boastfully of the hand he had had in
John's fortunes; or would have had if the dear fellow had
gone out to India, as he had planned. John made him
welcome enough; he would not have known how to do
otherwise.

But more welcome guests were Richard and Tom

Grigson, who, sometimes together and sometimes apart,
periodically and for some years gave John the benefit and
pleasure of their society. And on occasion of Tom's marriage
to Kate Elliston of the Mumbles, a part of their honeymoon
was spent at Tincroft House, the unused state apartments
being prepared and hospitably thrown open to them for that
auspicious occasion. But respecting this matrimonial event,
we shall have something to tell in a future chapter.

Mr. Rubric also sometimes found his way to Tincroft

House. And it is to be expressly stated that this gentleman,
as well as those above mentioned, made themselves
agreeable to Mrs. Tincroft by the respectful gallantry with
which they treated her.

John would fain have extended his hospitality to

excellent Mrs. Barry, to whom he was, on more than one
account, indebted. But she laughingly declined the
invitation.

"When I travel the country in a showman's van, as the

fat woman of Oxford, I'll be sure to give you a call," said
she; "but till then, I think you must come and see me
sometimes, Mr. John."

Which he did.

Once the Tincrofts received an unexpected call from

Ralph Burgess, out of the far north, whose professional
engagements in connection with a projected railroad (for it
was at the time when railroads began to be surveyed)
carried him southward.

On this occasion, John was taken aside by his visitor.

"You have heard nothing of Walter Wilson of late, I

suppose!"
 "Nothing," said John, "except that he went to Australia
soon after—not long after—"

"Not long after your marriage. True. You will not be

sorry to hear that he is not doing badly out there, I hope?"

"Sorry!" Why should John be sorry? He was very glad,

and so would Sarah be, when she heard it.

"But perhaps you will be surprised to hear that he is

married?"

"Better news still," said John. "It makes me

uncommonly happy to hear it."

And now, having made a sort of hero of one who

became so without intending it, and in spite of himself, we
here make our bow to John Tincroft, to bring him forward
again after many years. Before taking this stride, however,
it will be incumbent on us to leave him some little time to
repose under his laurels, while we glance at the fortunes of
two or more of the dramatis personæ of this history.

CHAPTER XVII.
HELEN.
 SOME years before the occurrence of the events
recorded in the former part of our narrative, Mr. Sedley, a
professional gentleman, pretty well off in the world, and
with a good position in society, having taken umbrage at
some slight offered him in the county town where he had
imagined his influence to be paramount, hastily made up his
mind to leave the country.

In pursuance of this design, he first of all disposed of

his practice; sold the house in which he lived, and the
greater part of his furniture; went into lodgings; and then,
when all these steps had been taken, began to study the
science of emigration in connection with the numerous and
various British colonies scattered over the face of the globe.

If Mr. Sedley had had only himself to please, the matter

would have been of smaller consequence than it was. But
he was a married man, and was, in sequence, the father of
some half-dozen sons and daughters. Of these appendages,
or encumbrances as they are sometimes called, such as
were old enough to have any opinions of their own were at
first rather rebellious; at least, they thought it hard to have
to give up the comforts and luxuries of a genteel home in
England for the uncertain prospects and advantages, and
the certain toils and sacrifices, of an emigrant life.

But Mr. Sedley had a strong will of his own, and was
especially liable to attacks of obstinacy which sometimes
seemed to lead on to remorselessness of purpose, and
which, as is usual in such cases, gained strength by
opposition. It was natural enough, therefore, though not
necessarily judicious, that he should silence the objections
of these younger members of his family, by the
unanswerable argument wrapped up in Le roi le veut.
 As to Mrs. Sedley, the meek-spirited wife, it was
sufficient for her to know that she must follow in her
husband's wake. Had she not vowed to "love, honour, and
obey"? So, without any fruitless remonstrances, she
prepared quietly to fulfil her duty.

As, however, my story is about John Tincroft, I must

follow the fortunes of the Sedley family only so far as they
relate indirectly to the continuance of his history. Briefly,
then, after long pondering on the subject, and consulting as
many authorities as he thought expedient, the ex-lawyer
fixed on the then almost terra incognita of Australia as his
general, and the part of it known as New South Wales as his
particular, destination.

Those were not the times of fast clippers, to say nothing

of ocean steamers. As Mr. Sedley, however, could afford to
pay good passage-money, he and his set sail one day in late
summer from Gravesend, under comparatively comfortable
circumstances.

The voyage was attended with the usual variety of

monotonous incidents. It was long and wearying, but it
came to an end; and about the commencement of the
Australian summer, the party landed at Sydney. Not long to
remain there, but to proceed a good way up the country to
a farm or settlement, which, on the representation of an
advertisement, and forgetting his professional caution, the
gentleman had purchased without seeing.

The bargain probably was not a bad one, after all; or it

might not have been, in the hands of one who understood
the ins and outs of a pastoral life at the Antipodes. But,
unfortunately, Mr. Sedley would have been at his wits' ends
on an English farm; for farming comes no more by nature
than gig-driving. Very soon, therefore, he found himself
altogether beyond his wits on an Australian settlement. In
other words, misfortunes rapidly set in upon him; and to
add to his embarrassments, one of those periodical times of
depression, to which all now colonies are more or less
subject, fell upon New South Wales.

Happily for the Sedleys, their whole property was not

invested in land and stock, and they outrode the storm.
After the lapse of a year or two, their circumstances began
to mend; and they had their share in the returning and
increasing prosperity of their adopted country.

But while regaining his lost ground in this respect, Mr.

Sedley had still reason to regret the course into which he
had been driven by the impulses of his unreasoning
obstinacy. In England he had maintained a certain position
in social life for which he was very well suited, and in which
were combined and concentrated a good many rational
pleasures, counterbalanced, it is true, by a liability to be
slighted and mortified occasionally.

In Australia, he had none with whom to dispute

precedence, or to stand up for his rights, simply because he
had no such neighbours. He was "monarch of all he
surveyed," it is true; but then it was because he had no
equals or fancied superiors his "right to dispute." Wife and
children—an ignorant and awkward and untoward woman-
help who had come out to the colony under the pressure of
circumstances, and at the expense of the home
Government—a shepherd and hut keeper (obtained under
similar advantages or disadvantages), who drew monthly
rations and smoked strong tobacco, and otherwise
comported themselves as free and independent savages in
a shanty some three miles away—a rough-and-ready bush
carpenter and blacksmith, with a rather more civilised
groom of the stables at home, and one or two farm
labourers, who called Mr. Sedley their "boss," obeying him
when it suited them, and setting him aside when it did not,
formed the whole of the community within a radius of some
ten miles in every direction.

Now, this was not, in all respects, pleasant to Mr.

Sedley. Authority is gratifying, no doubt, under certain
conditions, and when it can be enforced. But in this case,
those conditions were wanting, and all that Mr. Sedley got
for his occasional outbreaks of despotic temper was the
timid fear of those to whose confiding love he thought he
had a right, and the contempt and daring rebellion of the
few to whom he looked for unlimited obedience.

If Mr. Sedley was disappointed in his fancy-drawn

pictures of an emigrant life (on which he ought never to
have entered, because totally unfitted for it), his wife and
children were confirmed in their prophetic dread of it. To
have exchanged a respectable family mansion in a quiet
country town, a bevy of well-conducted servants, a circle of
friends and acquaintances, the delights of leisurely
occupations, the conveniences of life in general, for a rough
log-house in what to them was a desert, with all its
disadvantages and drawbacks, was simply disgusting.

They had not been accustomed to hardships, and the

freedom they might have exercised and enjoyed in their
new home, and which to many others would have been a
boon of price, was to them mere slavery. We have thought
proper to drew attention to, and to dwell for a minute or
two on, this state of things at Sedley Station, as the
settlement was called, for a reason of our own. It is a
benevolent one: let this suffice.

To go on with our episodal sketch.

 The Sedleys were to pass through deeper trials than the
disappointments and coarse toils of an emigrant life. Not
many years after their settling down at the station, a fever
(introduced, as was supposed, by a miserable, half-starved
wretch who was loafing his way from settlement to
settlement professedly in search of work, and who was
taken in out of charity, and suffered to remain for some
days to recruit his strength) broke out among them. Only
those who have passed through a like experience can fully
enter into the terrors of that time.

At first, recourse was had to the family medicine chest

which the Sedleys had brought out with them from London.
This failing, the nearest doctor was sent for. He lived full
thirty miles away, and he came to find two of the stricken
ones already dead, two in a state of collapse, the remaining
two in the earlier stages of the fever, and the parents, who
had been deserted by their faithless helps at the outbreak
of the sickness, in almost speechless agony of mind, and
worn out with bodily fatigue.

A few weeks later, and the home was desolate. Of all

who had, a few years before, left a happy home in England,
only two remained—the father, prematurely aged, and
Helen, a maiden of fifteen; the fever had carried off all
beside—the mother last of all. She had been spared, upheld
as it seemed by the strength of a mother's devotion, till her
services were no longer needed, and then she too was
stricken down.

Time softens sorrow, especially to the young. Helen

Sedley had felt, with all the poignancy of a daughter's and a
sister's grief, the bereavement of which we have told. But
as months, and afterwards years, passed away, her tears
ceased to flow as she thought of the lost ones; and she
bent herself with more determination to the duties in life
which lay before her.

She had need enough to do this, for her path was

rough, and her duties were severe. The infirmities of age
were fast gathering and concentrating themselves upon Mr.
Sedley, and through these the infirmities of his natural
temper became more and more glaring. To Helen, indeed,
he was gentle and loving; to his dependents, he was as
morose and arbitrary as the conditions of their service
permitted or enabled him to be, and the kind-hearted girl
had constantly to watch for those outbursts of anger, so as
both to moderate their fury and to prevent their worst
consequences.

We have hinted that some of the servants at Sedley

Station were of the convict class. Indeed, the labour market
of the colony was, at the time of which we write, in a great
measure supplied by convicts on ticket-of-leave. Many of
these turned out valuable servants. In fact, knavery, at any
rate on a small scale, was too bad a trade to fall back upon;
it paid a transported housebreaker or pickpocket much
better to practise honest labour. The spell, therefore, was to
a great extent broken. At the same time, there were
desperate characters among the convicts whom no
discipline could tame, and whom experience could not
teach; and there is no doubt that such as these were an
element of danger to all concerned.

The men whom Mr. Sedley first engaged, or rather

obtained from the proper authorities, as his bond-servants,
had worked out their time and disappeared soon after the
terrible blow fell on him and Helen. But others of the same
class succeeded, and it was between these and her father,
when in his moods of obstinate despotism, that Helen had
so frequently to mediate, or afterwards to interpose the
balm of soft and kindly words to the chafed and galled.

"Your father may thank you, Helen Sedley, for being in a

whole skin at this present," said a man to her one day,
when Sedley had been mare than usually violent in his
language and bearing towards him for having, in some
trivial matter, disobeyed his orders. "He taunted me with
having been lagged, as you heard, Miss Sedley; and it isn't
the first nor the second time, and my opinion is that he will
do it once too often. He threatened me with Norfolk Island,
too, did he? Let him take care that he isn't sent to a darker
and narrower hole than Norfolk Island one of these days."

"You must not speak so to me, Styles," said Helen,

firmly, though her heart secretly fluttered at seeing the dark
eyes of the man glisten, as with the wild fire of rage and
vengeance, while he was speaking. But Helen, though
scarcely twenty years old, was wise and brave as well as
good and kind; and she knew that she must not show signs
of fear.

"I must speak, Miss Sedley," rejoined the man,

respectfully enough so far as Helen was concerned, but
doggedly and fiercely too; "if I don't speak here and now, I
shall talk to another purpose somewhere else, and at some
other time, not far-off, perhaps. Look here, Miss Sedley, in
the old country I was as good a man as your father, I
reckon, though I mightn't have had his education. At all
events, I wasn't a lawyer as he was—so I have heard, at
least. But I was a gentleman's son, and might have been a
gentleman myself at this time if it hadn't been for—there,
never mind. But I don't forget what I was once; and 'tis
hard lines to be treated worse than a dog, as your father
treats me."
 "I have told you many times, Styles, how much I feel
for you—for all who are in your unhappy position," said
Helen, softly; "and now I ask you for my sake to make
allowances for my father."

"He makes precious few allowances for me," retorted

the man, gloomily. Nevertheless, he remained waiting to
hear what more Helen had to say.

"You know what a loss he—what a loss both of us had to

bear five years ago. My mother, my sisters, my brothers—
there were six of us then—" Helen's firmness gave way
here.

"I know—that is, I have heard it all," said Styles, more

mildly than he had before spoken; "and I am a brute not to
make allowances, as you say. But it is hard, Miss Sedley, for
all that, to be a—to be what I am, and to feel what I feel at
times. It gets over me. Do you know why I was sent out
and am here, Miss Sedley?"

"I have never inquired, and I have never been told," the
young woman answered.

"It was not for dishonesty; I never stole a penny, I

never cheated any man out of a farthing to my knowledge;
but I struck a man when I was in a passion, and I struck
him hard. I didn't mean to do mischief; I didn't know what I
was doing till it was too late. The man insulted me, but not
so bad as your father has done the same thing, and I was
too high-spirited to stand it. Before he could speak another
word, the deed was done; he fell down like lead, and he
never spoke again."

The perspiration broke out on Styles's forehead, and his

lips quivered as he spoke; and then presently he added,
more quietly and softly—
 "I tell you, Miss Sedley, it isn't safe for your father to go
on as he does with others as well as with me. I don't want
to hurt him. It is bad enough to have one man's death on
the mind, to want to have another. But what has happened
once unawares might happen a second time. There's some
of the old grit left, I sometimes feel; and setting myself
aside, there are others who wouldn't care a straw so they
could have their revenge."

"I thank you for your warning, Styles," said Helen; "and
I will do what I can to make your position—I mean to shield
you from trouble of any sort. I did not before know what
you have now told me; but as you are feeling now the
consequences of rash anger, you surely would not give way
again to the same temptation?"

"I don't know why not, Miss Sedley. Life such as mine
out here is not so valuable as to be worth keeping. But you
speak about my feeling the consequences, you don't know
all."

The man's voice faltered here, and the muscles of his

face were painfully moved.

"I had a wife—I hadn't been married a year." The poor

ticket-of-leave man here broke out into a passionate cry,
and hastily turned away.

"Don't speak of it to me, Styles. It only distresses you.

Pray to God to give you pardon and strength to bear your
sorrow. The Lord Jesus will give you rest and peace. Go to
Him."

"Yes, I know, I know," said the man, again facing his

monitress; "but I think for all that, the devil would long
before now have got the mastery, if it hadn't been for you.
Helen Sedley, you are like my Caroline, like what she was;
and when I look on you, my heart seems to soften."

"And have you no hope of being restored to her?"

"No hope. She is dead; she died on ship-board the year

after our last parting in prison. She was following me out."
And the man walked slowly away when he had said this.

It was with experiences such as these that Helen Sedley

became familiar in her life in the Australian bush. Let it be
borne in mind that I am writing of what is now long past.
Australian life, whether in bush or towns and cities, has
strangely altered since then. But is it to be wondered that,
under such circumstances, a feeling of desolation
sometimes made the solitary young woman sad, while the
need for constant watchfulness and daily labour, not always
of the most feminine kind, made her seem and feel older
than her years.

As time wore on, Helen had to take active

superintendence of her father's concerns, even to the
occasional visiting of the out-station, for he was becoming
feeble and forgetful. It was in fulfilment of this duty that
she had, soon after the conversation just recorded, to take
cognisance of a plot she had discovered (but in which the
man Styles had no part), and which had some time been in
operation, for seriously damaging the livestock on the
distant run.

On making this discovery, there was no alternative but

to lodge an information with the nearest district magistrate;
and Helen had, reluctantly enough but courageously, to be a
witness against the conspirators. These were convicted,
principally on her evidence, and heavily sentenced. Being
remitted to headquarters to undergo a lengthened
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