The Sun.
London, England, 1864-07-23 00:00:00

would be well for Prussia and her ally to take
heed to the warnings of a French journal, which
bids them remember that there will oome a day
of retribution, and that in the long•run they will
not be gainers by the unfair course they are now
pursuing. When the day of reckoning arrives no
one will pity them ; but the unfortunate thing is
that their losses will not be gain to the unhappy
victims of their perfidy at present. Nothing can
restore the lives that have been wasted—the pro•
perty destroyed—and the general discomforture
caused by this outrageous and uncalled-for war.
It seems most incomprehensible that the Ministers
of this country should so abrogate their rights
to defend the injured, and so utterly fail in ful-
filling their requirements. It is one of those
lamentable occurrences that are an indfAceable
stain on the records of a nation, and which more
than any visitation of PROVIDENCE, darkens the
career of a people, for nothing is so much
to be deplored as a want of good faith.

It is often the fate of wise legislators and far-
sighted statesmen to devote long years of toil and
anxiety to the foundation of works of which they
never see the completion. It is often their lot when
in office to lay down some line of policy which,

when carried out, brings credit and ease to their
successors. And in every sphere of life we may,
more or less, find that those who bear the brunt
of the battle, who inaugurate great changes, who
originate schemes of reform, who go through the
dry and tedious processes necessary to prepare the
ground for future development, are the last to reap
the fruits of the harvest they have sown,if, indeed,
any portion of it comes to their share at all. By a
natural consequence it, therefore, frequently hap-
pens that men in places of trust and importance
sometimes come in for the benefit of a success with
which they have really had little to do, and are
able to claim credit which does not actually belong
to them. One of these happy chances has just
befallen our Indian Secretary ; and Sir CHARLES
WooD, with the natural aptitude of an experienced
Whig statesman, is very ready to wear the laurels
which Fate has so kindly brought him. Palmam
qui meruit ferat is an exploded and inconvenient
doctrine, and the lucky individual who gets the
palm may, just as well retai❑ it for his
own use as pass it on to those more deserving
but less prominent. Accordingly we find Sir
CHARLES WOOD congratulating himself on
the Indian finances, and the general development
of a country whose progress he has done a good
deal to hinder. Within the last few years, more
especially since the cotton famine, India has made
rapid prcgress. The cultivation of cotton, of tea,
and of coffee, the increased cultivation of land, and
the extension of railways into the interior, have all
contributed to the present flourishing condition of
the country, and are evidences of its material pros.
perity. Whether even now India is what it might
have been under a more liberal and enlightened
administration may be doubted, notwithstanding
the favourable issue of the Budget; but, at least,
we may be glad that in a financial point of view
there is a satisfactory balance. Three years ago the
chronic deficiency of the Indian Budget was re-
duced to £50,000. In the year ending April,lB63,
there was a surplus of £1,800,000. In the year
ending with last April there was a surplus of
£237,000; and Sir CHARLES TREYELTAN, no
inexperienced or theoretical financier, anticipates
a surplus of £823,000 for the current year. Several
of the taxes have been reduced, and it is proposed
altogether to abandon the Income Tax, as part of
the general revenue, and only to retain it for pur-
poses of local taxation. This is not, however, so
much due to the flourishing condition of the revenue
as to the unsatisfactory result of the tax, which
save too good an opportunity for Eastern craft and
falsehood to produce a return at all commensurate
with the property of the people. The salt tax is
still retained, which is the greater hardship on the
people, since th 3 manufacture of native salt in
Bengal has been altogether abandoned for the con-
sumption of English salt. It is urged in behalf of
this impost that it is the only means of taxing the
coolie, who lives on rice and water, and scarcely
wears rags ; but this is a false system, and we
should be following a truer principle in endeavour-
ing to raise the condition of the people, and increase
their wants, rather than by grinding them down
with oppressive duties on bare necessaries.
The opium revenue, which is the most
fluctuating source of income, was the principal
feature in the high surplus of 1862-63, the amount
received from it in that year alone being
£8,055,000, the increase on that sole item being
£1,696,000, while in the last year, owing to the
state of trade with China, the amount fell off by
£1,200,000. More satisfactory and more to le
depended on is the increase perceptible in other
branches of revenue. Compared with the statistics
of 1856-7, the year before the mutiny, the land
revenue has increased by £3,250,000 owing to the
larger extent of land cultivated ; stamps have
increasd £1,100,000 and customs and salt together
have increased £3,000,000. This last item is not at