The Sun.
London, England, 1865-01-03 00:00:00

men of whatever party have long felt impressed
with the sense of the serious responsibility
assumed by this country in administrating the
affairs of so large and so ancient a people, with
creed, customs, and history so entirely distinct from
But the great world of business men and
active .practical politicians found too much to en-
gage their attention in the busy Western hemis-
phere, and in the stirring scenes of European life,
to trouble themselves much about Indian affairs,
which seemed to them to be tedious and unprofit-
able. How great was this mistake Mr. BARING
very clearly demonstrated, when he pointed out
that in fact the income and expenditure of India
falls very little short of the income and expenditure
of England herself. The respective figures
stand, it is true, at £70,000,000 in-
come and £67,000,000 expenditure for Eng-
land, and about £46,000,000 income and
£45,000,000 expenditure for India; but if we deduct
the amounts paid in both countries for interest on
the national debt, we shall find that England retains
£41,500,000 for the purposes of government, and
India £40,000,000. This is certainly a striking fact,
and not less so is the enormous increase of Indian
commerce during the last few years of better, go-
vernment. The British trade with India exceeds
the whole of the trade with the Australian and
North American colonies, and is, says Mr. BARING,
actually more than half the trade between England
and the whole of the British possessions. These figures
prove how important a source of revenue we have
hitherto overlooked in neglecting our duties towards
our Indian possessions. The large sums which have
lately been spent in the public works of India prove
how much has been hitherto left undone in that re-
spect. In 1862, says Mr. BARING, the money
spent in India on railroads and on other public im-
provements was no less than eleven millions and a
half, and this is a fair average of the amount
annually spent for improvements since 1859. It is
a pity that the same energy has not been shown in
water-works as in other particulars, since not only
would the blessings of irrigation and the opening of
canals present the best security against famine, but
such works would be immediately remunerative, as
has been abundantly proved at the Godavery.
Mr. BARING, at the opening of his speech, referred
to the speech which Mr. BRIGHT made in 1859, in
which that gentleman, although showing great
knowledge of his subject, took the most mournful
views of the future, and could see no better remedy
for the terrible deficit then existing than the aban-
donment of part of our territory. That prophecy
has been., happily, altogether mistaken, for a better
system of governing has brought about a change no
less rapid than satisfactory. Mr. BARING'S statis-
tics also gave emphatic contradiction to Mr. COB-
DEN'S assertion that this country has no interest
whatever in retaining her Indian possessions. Mr.
BARING, of course, gave the customary official
praise to his former chief, but he omitted to men-
tion that the real improvement began under Lord
STANLEY, and that Sir CHARLES WOOD has done
his best to disgust Anglo-Indians with the public
service and with their adopted country.

our own.