The Sun.
London, England, 1862-05-19 00:00:00

Mr. WADDINGTON, in the note preceding this re-
markable paper, " I am directed by Sir G. GREY,
to transmit to you the enclosed form of a billet
paper, which the Secretary of State for "War is
desirous should in future be issued by the civil
authorities, in order that innkeepers, and other
persons, on whom soldiers are billeted, may clearly
understand their liabilities ; and I am to suggest
that steps should be taken to ensure the use of the
enclosed form of billet paper, on all occasions when
billet papers aro issued in the county of Middle-
sex." Observe the words above italicised, "in
order that innkeepers and other persons on whom
soldiers are billeted may clearly understand their
liabilities." Poor souls !—they may well, in truth,
have vouchsafed to them at any rate this timely
word of forewarning. It is the least that could be
done in their regard—that they should learn be-
times what it is that is expected from them in this
matter of the billeting—and expected from them,
recollect, nolens velem?, under pretty sharp penal-
ties.

There is the curt communication pending the
very agreeable announcement we are here alluding
to—a printed form with blanks to be filled up in
each instance, as the occasion arises, with the dis-
tinctive indication of the victim-host and the cor-
morant-guests quartered upon his establishmeLt.
The pleasant little missive, here spoken of, being in
effect simply as follows

GRMAT BRITAIN.
"To the Landlord at the sign of the street, in
the parish of .—You are hereby required to find
quartere for of the regiment of
for night. Dated the day of 18 .
, Billet Master."
Then comes a delectable extract from the Mutiny
Act, intimating to the unfortunate landlord, with
a really frightful precision, what it is that
will (under penalty) be expected from him.
Now, we need do no more here than briefly quote
the first paragraph of this uncompromising quota-
tion. For, in point of fact, it contains the very
essence of the jest. Though,"certainly, by the way,
if the Billeting System be spoken carelessly thus as
a joke, the unhappy innkeepers, at whose expense
it is cracked, may, with full reason, object—
" What's fun to you, is death to us." Here, how-
ever, is the first and sufficient morsel of this Ele-
gant Extract, taken, as already observed, from the
Mutiny Act—and suggestive (or we are certainly
much mistaken) to many an innkeeper of
something, on his part, very like mutiny.
Saith the Act—" The innholder or other
person on whom any soldier is billeted on the march
in Great Britain shall, if required, furnish him (but
not exceeding two days when halted on the march)
with one hot meal in each day, to consist of (but
not exceeding) one pound and a quarter of meat,
previous to being dressed, one pound of bread, one
pound of potatoes or other vegetables, and two
pints of small beer, and vinegar, salt, and pepper,
for which the sum of 10d. will be paid, and 21d. for
a bed." Now, for a moment, examine the items,
and—remembering the average market price, even
wholesale, of the various articles of food mentioned,
meat, bread, potatoes, beer, and the etceteras—say
whether or no it be a dead robbery upon the ink-
keeper to talk of remunerating (!) him while the
soldier is wiping his lips after this hot meal, and
preparing perhaps to solace himself with a digester
afterwards in the shape of a comfortable pipe of
tobacco—whether or no it be a dead robbery upon
the innkeeper to rtmunerate him, forsooth ! by the
payment down of a wretched little dole of tenpenceP
A pound and a quarter of meat—(why, that of
itself would take off about tenpence)—a pound of
bread, a pound of potatoes or other vegetables, two
pints of beer (the price of that alone at the bar
being fourpence)—vinegar (a superfluous item to
the landlord himself, we should suppose, for a little
while after each billeting)—salt (for which at this
rate he would find a difficulty in paying)—and
pepper (a plentiful supply of which, in another
form, is certainly supplied in this very way from
the Home-office)—and all for the small charge, the
particularly small charge, of Tenpence ! Surely
upon all this, not one syllable of serious comment
is, in truth, required. The flagrant meanness of
the sum set apart for the reimbursement of the un-
happy wight upon whom these soldiers in the
QUEEN'S army are billeted, speaks for itself. If,
according to the old adage, every bullet has its
billet—with a no less unerring aim (thanks to the
sharp practice authorised by the Mutiny Act)
every billet brings down the fated landlord at a
long shot, dead as a door nail. There is no escap-
ing it. And, if we may regard the class victimised
(as in the majority of instances we surely may), as
affording favourable specimens of JOHN BULL—it
is a shot, too, right in the Bull's eye.

The news from India will gladden every thought-
ful _Englishman. It is hardly five years since
nothing but regard to the national honour pre-
vented thousands from recommending that India
should be turned adrift, to save us the prospect of
interminable expense. The humanity, only, of Mr.
BRIGHT prevented him, and others of the Man-
chester school, from advocating the renunciation of
our rule there; so that, happily, between a sense
of duty towards peoples whom we had rendered
helpless and of the dishonour involved in confess-
ing ourselves really worsted, the idea was not enter-
tained for a moment as a practical one. Probably,
however, but very few of our statesmen did not
look forward towards a long period of disordered
finance, and of ill-will between the conquering and
the subject races.
That fear is now-passing away like a cloud. The
letters just arrived bring us a more cheerful pic-
ture of our Indian empire than we can send back
of our own. We shall soon have Mr. LAING's
spoech in full, meantime a pretty full account of
it, and of its effects, is eminently satisfactory. The
day following his announcement of the Indian
Budget, the Government Five-and-a-Half per Cent.
Securities rose to ten per cent. premium, with
every prospect of advance. Yet only four years ago
the saline Government could not raise a loan at six
per cent ! No money dealers in the world surpass
those of Calcutta in shrewdness and knowledge of
their constituencies ; and this single fact is conclu-
sive of the general character of the Budget. Its gene-
ral features are these. Owing to causes not to be for-
seen the expenditure exceeded Mr LAING'S estimates
by £1,714,370. But he had estimated also his pro-
pable receipts with such entire freedom from exag-
geration, that the year closed with nearly that
amount of surplus ! For 1862-3 this safe financier
proposes a surplus of £1,428,600, and
by
eclaf ash
balances, unlike our own, are increased half
million, and are actually five millions above a safe
working minimum ! And here it is to be noted that
railways and banks have already shown themselves
in India to be equivalent to an increase in the
circulating medium. Balances not quite so large
as formerly being found to be quite as effective,
when they can be made so safely and promptly
available.

able The
surplus o t
as
rteo
pwhich
rAelmr
iLs
sAiioNnGs do ef vtoatxe sa
thi
oi so a:a' ani ld-
partly reproductive imperial outlay. Manchester
is thankful to find her manufactured cotton goods
sharing the benefit by a reduction from ten to five
per cent. duty—this duty, as cottons are mumble-
tured in India, being one of the most singular for
such an extreme free trader as Mr. WILSON to have