The Express.
London, England, 1868-07-28 00:00:00

TEN =DIAN ■onoa.

The Tinto finds it difficult to pronounce with
authority on Mr. Laing's suggestion of a loan for
the public works of India, but thinks it ob-
viously dererves .Ices attention. The money
market is certainly in a condition extremely fa-
vourable to the proposal. The propriety of undertaking
certain definite works has been repeatedly urged by the
Governor-Genera in Council, and has been acknowledged
by successive Secretaries for India at home. Under
these circumstances it is plainly good pulley to make
a deliberate calculation of what is required and to
provide accordingly. If the Indian Secretary goes on
year after year undertaking special works very much at
hazard, there is considerable risk that the less important
works will be preferred while more remunerative under-
takings are neglected, and there is the certainty that he
will be exposed to pressure from all sides in favour of
some pet scheme which commands the favour of influen-
tial persons. It would be better to institute an inquiry
as to the works which may properly be executed on bor-
rowed money, and to lay down the principle that nothing
else shall be undertaken, except what can be paid for ou►
of surplus revenue.

Tlieisprres which Sir B. Northoote yesterday presented
to the house are in some respects, says the Daily Neu% but
illusory tests of the real state of Indian finance. With
regard to public works, a rule has been laid down by the
Secretary of State, in a recent &spat& to the government
of India, which seems in every respect a sound and whole-
some one. " Extraordinary " charges are for the
future to be made only for public works, either
of a reproductive kind like irrigation canals, or " special
fund works," which are undertaken for an imme-
diately valuable object by some local municipality. This
rule, it may be hoped, will at once encourage a fair
expenditure on public works, and repress effectually the
disposition of Indian officials to shift ordinary expenses on
every occasion to the extraordinary balance-sheet, and so
to nibble aw►y at the capital of the country for charges
that should fall on income.

The Telegraph asks why some of Lord Redesdale's
friends do not keep watch and ward over the doughty
Gloucestershire baron, so as to preserve him from the tri-
bulation that awaits those who "speak unadvisedly with
their lips "? Never surely was seen such a terrible Turk,
where abuses of • certain kind are concerned, as the rosy-
cheeked English nobleman, whose blue swallow-tail coat
and braes buttons, with "continuations" to match, con-
stitute one of the most familiar ornaments of our upper
house. In his last dispute with the South-Eastern Railway
Lord Redesdale's case is weak from beginning to end,
and in endeavouring to prove his statements he deals
in random assertions that indicate an ignorance of fact
and custom inexcusable in one who sets up for •
censor of others. It is to be hoped thatthe noble chair-
man of committees will in future reserve his energies for
proved and undeniable abuses, and will not make a
perfectly legitimate operation by a railway proprietary
the ground for bringing charges which are heinous in
themselves, and which are rendered doubly so by the place
in which they are uttered.