The Express.
London, England, 1848-01-04 00:00:00

2

six weeks ago, he would have spared himself much
opprobrium, and us a certain amount of labour.

TIIE commercial news brought by the Overland Mail
from India is unfavourable, as was to be expected, but
not conclusive. It is not easy to say whether the disas-
ters announced from that quarter can be regarded as
the " be-all and end-all." The storm has broken with
most severity over Calcutta, where previous shocks
had left several tottering edifices. Bombay had come
off, so far as was known, much more easily than could
have been anticipated.
The political intelligence of most importance relates
to:the territories of the King of Ocoe and the NIZAM.
Lord HARDINGI: and the first-named potentate had
met at Caw npore. The object of the intei view,
it is said, was to ameliorate the affairs of that
oppressed and distracted state by " measures of coun-
sel and friendly arrangement." Itow idle it is to hope
that the Anglo-Indian authorities can impart to any
country the advantages of well regulated government
so long as they allow a sovereign more or less nominal
to stand between them and the people, is forcibly
impressed upon unbiassed observers at this moment
by the state of affairs in the dominions of the other
potenlite we have named. That wretched district is
in a state of absolute anarchy. The NIZAM and Ms
minister are at variance : the treasury is empty;
and the prince's Arab mercenaries are plunder-
ing the inhabitants with i,npunity. Mean-
while the British government, its hands tied
by treaties, is impotent to restrain from outrage the
childish and wayward despot whom it upholds on the
throne. The Nixon has quitti d his capital, declaring
that he will not return till our resident consents to
the removal of the prime minister; and the general
impression is that this point will be conceded. (lode,
therefore, and the Nizun's territories are probably to
be still longer subjected to the miseries which a
morbid fear of being called ambitious of extended
territory has caused our Indian government to entail
on many regions of Hindostan. These tributary and
protected princes are de.lhetn our subjects. The world
is not blinded by the shadowy character of the
independence possessed by Indian sovereigns who have
an English resident at their court: we escape none
of the imputations which enemies might be inclined to
make by such an arrangement. But we deprive our-
selves of the power of legislating for the benefit of
the general inhabitants : we become the accomplices
of their petty tyrants. It is in this relation,
too, that such intrigues originate for the benefit
of Enrilish traders in philanthropy as that affair
of the late Rnjah of Sattara. It could be desired
that the Company turned to more account the
machinery fur organising a good local government
offered by the aristocratic and proprietary classes of
India ; but to enable it to do this it must boldly assert
the sole and exclusive right of ivereignty over every
strip of territory included within its utmost bounda-
ries. It must recognise no partners in sovereignty.
From Scinde there is no intelligence to throw light
either on the present or future of that country. In
the absence of such news, howl ver, some suggestions
may be derived from a return of the expenditure and
charges of India for the last three years, printed by
order of the House of Commons, and published yester-
day. From this document it appears that from 1843-4
to 1815-6 inclusive, Seinde has cost the Company
1,907,610/. The revenue received from Seinde
during the same period has only amounted to
607,152/. In the expenditure is included the
extraordinary military charge and war charges;
an outlay which, with the Belooches for our
neighbours, is not likely to be soon reduced below
the amount of the last year-347,1171. The civil ex-
penditure of the province has amounted during the
three years to 572,7221.; leaving a surplus revenue of
31,730!. for the whole period. And as the ordinary
military charges of provinces are not distinguished in
the Indian statemt nt, the amount of expenditure in-
curred in Seinde under this head is unknown. There
can be little doubt, however, that it will more than
swallow up the slight surplus of revenue over the civil
charges for tha three years.
An analysis of the return referred to is given
in another column. It will be found pregnant with
instruction. It shows that, during the three last
finamial years, there has been a permanent excess of
expenditure over revenue in India. It shows, at the
same time, that the most strenuous exertions have
been made to keep down the expenses of collection,
without, however, impairing the efficiency of the col-
lecting service; that in some departments of govern-
ment a degree of economy, or rather parsimony, has
been introduced, calculated to injure the re-
sources of the country ; and that, with the
single exception of the Scinde outlay, every
increase of expenditure has been calculated to in-
crease the efficiency of government. In so far as
strict mercantile exactness can go, the finances of
India have been well administered. Yet, notwith-
standing this exactitude, there is the permanent defi-
ciencv staring us in the face and making itself felt in
the airainished dividends on Indian Stock, and the
increased interest on the Home Bond Debt. The
inevitable inference front this state of affairs is
that the Indian government is, at this moment,
as much deficient in the higher and vital
qualities of statesmanship as it is irreproach-
able in the minor virtues of a steward or
book-ki epee. The steadily augmenting derangement
in Indian finances is not to be cured by accuracy in
accounting and the paring of details of expenditure,
but by a bold and judicious revision of the whole
financial and commercial system of India.

WE recently drew attention to the unequal and
oppressive incidence of the duty on advertisements
in newspapers and other periodical and literary pub-
lications.
An opulent railway company announcing its busi-
ness arrangements for the next half-year pays ls. (id.
duty in England and ls. in Inland on its advertise-
ment: the advertisement of a cook, footman, or
housemaid in want of a place is taxed at the same
rate. The business with a return of thousands in the
course of a year pays the same duty as the business
which only yields a yearly income of some fifteen
pounds. The Frame rate of duty is impostd on an ad-
vertisement which gives information respecting the
daily operations of six months, and the advertisement
which relates to only one transaction. The ex-
amples mentioned have been selected as the first
that occurred presenting a sufficiently striking
contrast: but let the reader take the trouble to con-
sult the advertising columns of ar.y daily newspaper,
and he will find the injustice they illustrate per-
vading all the applications of the advertisement duty.
The poor man, with a limited range of business, is
compelled to give as much to the state every time
he advertises it as the millionaire, who has a greater
number of profitable transactions pressed upon his
acceptance than he can undertake.
The financial returns for 1810 show that the ad-
vertisement duty yielded that year in Great Britain,
148,8741.; in Ireland, 11.0891. The case of the ser-
vants out of place affords no inapt illustration of the
unequal pressure of this tax, but scarcely exhibits
the full extent of its injustice. The advertising
domestics are, in a manner, the aristocracy of their
class: individuals who, having had the luck
to get good places from the beginning, have had every
facility and inducement afforded them to establish a
good character, are run after by employers, and pretty
sure of a place as soon as it is known that they are
disengaged. Upon them the tax presses compara-
tively more lightly than on any others of their class.
There are many who, with all the ability and disposi-
tion to make as good servants, have not had the same
opportunities of manifesting them, and who, conse-
quently, do not derive the same advantage from
several advertisements that the former class do from
one. There is another consideration which ought
to be allowed much weight here. It is always
of use to increase the number of those who,
having it in their power by average good con-
duct to establish a character for trustworthiness,
are taught to feel that they have a pecuniary
interest in retaining it. The advertising class of do-
mestics are among menial servants, those who indis-
utably belong to this class of society. Every houee-
holderr has an interest in the increase of their number.
Were the duty (ranging from 100 to 120 per cent. of
the coot of each advertisement) taken off, the adver-
tising servants who now patronise the 7Vmes to the
extent of at least a column daily, and who not un-
frequently fill up two or three of the columns of one
paper, and have been known to fill six, might be mul-
tiplied to an indefinite number. It is upon the young
and untried that the tax presses most heavily ; it pre-
vents them from having recourse to advertisements at
the time when they arc most needed by them ; it ex-
cludes them from the advertising class at the period