The Sun.
London, England, 1863-08-15 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, AUGUST 15, 1863.

same means to other districts. It is important in
every country to know what are the chief sources of
reveraue, and it has long been evident that in India
we have been making serious blunders in the Tat-
ter of finance. We are taxing salt, which is, with
the rice diet of the natives, almost a necessary of
life, and by so doing we aro pressing heavily on the
poorer classes, for certainly no one who could afford
a change of diet would live principally upon rice.
The tax is unpopular and irritating, and deprives
the people of the free use of an article they greatly
need. Yet the salt tax only yields 540 lace, or four
lacs per district. The land tax again, Sir CHARLES
WOOD'S cherished source of supply, indirectly
damages the revenue far more than it benefits it.
Yet these obnoxious imposts are cherished, while
a scheme of great national benefit, popular
and practicable, is left scarcely begun, although
it has been proved that it wouM add largely
to the national income, besides conferring the
greatest blessings on the people. Sir ARTHUR
COTTON complains loudly of the system of confound-
ing the accounts of the Public Works Department
money
with the general revenue. The water rate is, he
says,
lv invested; s
then,
he
ed the
sh ol
ua
lndd
at
lalx
bi
es
altogether
a return
different. for
mixed together in such a manner that it is impos-
sible for the public to understand
from what quar-
ter the great increase of revenue in certain districts
comes, or what amount of profit is realised by this
branch of Public Works. In consequence of this
mistaken system, most of the great works taken in
hand have been left unfinished. The heavy funda-
mental expenses have been incurred, but the final
arrangements, which will develope the scheme, are
left incomplete from motives of economy. The
Godavery Delta Works have been fifteen years in
hand, but the water is not yet distributed to half
the landt commanded by the weir. So with other
works. " Imagine," exclaims the indignant engi-
neer, " a merchant or a company building a steamer
at a cost of £20,000, and then economising by not
buying fuel to work it !" Sir C. WOOD once said
to him that it was easy to talk about executing
such works, but that he had to provide the money.
The ready answer was that if only a part of the net
increase of revenue from the Godavery Works were
handed over to the engineers, they would speedily
complete the works and hand over to
the Minister a large balance." At this
moment, if he would allow them to
spend only ten lace a year in completing the
Godavery and Kistnah works, at least a surplus of
twenty would remain provided by the engineers to
assist him out of these two districts only. I can
most confidently assert that if Lord CANNING had
taken in hand the system of works I sketched out
for him at his request, at the rate of four or five
millions a year, they might by this time have been
returning six or eight millions a year, much more
than sufficient to obviate the necessity of our in-
come-tax and a salt tax." These words must not
be taken as the sanguine expression of the views
of an enthusiastic theorist. They speak the con-
victions of one who has devoted long years to the
practical study of the subject, whose plans have
been hampered and restricted by the perverse in-
difference of officials, but who can bring in evidence
the most astonishing results from even partial and
incomplete experiments. It seems that theOodavery
Navigation Works are about at a standstill for want
of money, and that the Chief Commissioner has re-
commended that the closing link which is to com-
plete the communication between Nagpore and the
sea is to be left undone, notwithstanding the publio
assurances of Sir CHARLES WOOD that the works
should at once be carried to completion. The
cure for all this is probably to be found in the
suggestion that India should have Public Works
Commissioners who shall have full and unchecked
authority over the funds raised for such purposes,
and who shall account to tho public in a clear and
straightforward manner for every outlay incurred
and profit received. "I do earnestly insist," says
Sir A. COTTON, " that there is no necessity for
burthening the country with taxes to pay for works
which will much more than pay for themselves

. .
The effects on trade, on the import and export re-
turns produced by a system of water communica-
tion are what might be expected by any one con-
versant with the subject. The imports of Godavery
before 1846 were 3 lacs, of which two lacs were
for food; they are now 10 lacs, with a large export
of food.

Such facts seem to fall powerless on the ruling
minds of the India-office, but public attention is
beginning to be turned to the matter both in Eng-
land and India ; and we trust, before very long, they
will be called to account for their wilful neglect
of the vast resources of the nation they govern.

oNnOdTeHn ER t o
f"aIFN
rFeAnNe Th
pPaHmErN,OwlkirEitNinOgN PHENOMENON."—romThe
apclOers-,
resAp
states that a boy not more than ten years of age, named
Giovanni Gargano, son of an itinerant dealer in lemonade,
has just exhibited before the Society for the Promotion of
the Fine Arts at Naples, a group executed in clay,
repre-
senting the subject of a painting, the "Descent from the
Cross," preserved in the church of San Francesco di Piola,
and much admired by artists. As the members of the so-
ciety refused to believe the boy to be the author of this
group, Gargano quietly asked for some clay, and imme-
diately modelled, before the company, a copy of a statue
which was in the room. The artists present, astonished
at this prococity, immediately took measures for affording
the child the means of cultivating his wonderful talent.
FLORAL NAMES ! And others of Pretty Signi-
ficance.—Barbara is derived from barberis (the bar-
berry tree), Rosa from the rose, Laura from the laurel,
Lucy from lucus (a grove), Rosamond from rose mundi (the
flower of the world, Agnes from agnus (a lamb), meiim
from a Greek word signifying a bee, Dorcas a rose, Phillis
a leaf, Raehael a sheep, Jacintha a hyacinth. Galatea is
milk, Cynthia the moon, Jesse an engraft of a tree. Aurelia
means a cotton wood, Margaret a pearl and a daisy, Cecile
heartwort, and Chloe a green herb.
ENGLAND JEAL OUS AS TO THE ORIGINALITY OF
HER SCEPTICISM!—Of all the odd manifestations
of Patriotism ever yet witnessed, certainly one of the
strongest wo can at this moment recall to mind is that
evidenced by our chief contemporary, the Tines, in its able
criticism yesterday on Mr. Phillimore's "History of Eng-
land." In answer to that historian's, or rather satirist's,
sneering remark, that even the scepticism of England has
been second-land, the reviewer asks indignantly, as if this
were too cruel an imputation to be borne in silence—Was
the scepticism of Hume second-hand ; and is not Hume the
father of modern scepticism, the father also by his scepticism
of all the modern philosophy ? If Mr. Phillimsre refers
not to philosophical but to religious scepticism, pray what
is the source of the current doubts concerning the Chris-
tian faith ? 'We shall be told that these doubts came from
Germany. We have no objection to grant it if Mr. Philii-
more will grant that the Germans learned them from the
Engli-h Deists of the last century. Our modern religious
scepticism is but a revival in a new form of the old deistical
controversy with which we are quite familiar.
THE LATE PRIZE FIGHT.—The report circu-
lated by some of the London and provincial news-
papers to the effect that Travers had died from injuries
received in the late prize fight with Dillon is incorrect. Be
returned to London in the course of yesterday' (Friday)
afternoon, and, although much punished, is rapidly re-
covering from the effects of the conflict.
THE ATTEMPTED MURDER AND SUICIDE AT
PORTSMOUTH.—On Thursday evening an inquest
was held on the body of Robert Gourd, a writer in her
Majesty's dockyard, Portsmouth, who attempted to murde::
his wife, and then committed self-destruction. From the
facts adduced there could be no doubt that deceased was
insane when he committed the act, and the jury returned
verdict to that effect.

THE HARVEST IN EGYPT.--A letter from Alex-
andria says :—" The corn harvest has terminated in
Egypt, and it is g'nerally satisfactory and superior in
quantity to that of last year. The yield of wheat is ap-
proximately estimated at 9,500,000 ardebs (184 litres each) ;
barley, at 1,200,000 ardebs; maize, 1,500,000; bearw,
4,750,000; lentils, at 2,400,000; and other pulse, 100,000.
The considerable development given to the cultivation 01
cotton in Egypt leads to the hope that the next rickiPg'
ommeneing in September, will be *Want,"