The Sun.
London, England, 1862-07-16 00:00:00

THE SUN.
LONDON, WEDNESDAY, JULY 16, 1862.

WE felt little doubt that when a man like Sir
CHAS. WOOD accused such a man as Mr. LAING of
blundering in his accounts, the accusation could
stand only so long as it should remain unanswered.
We have had too many proofs that Sir CHARLES is
a person who owes his position solely to his connec-
tions, and who, as Cardinal WOLSEY told his re-
proacher, had he been born a butcher, would
have remained a butcher, to doubt that Mr. LAING,
who owes his position to his ability, would in a
short time expose the splenetic charges of his in-
competent official superior. This Mr. LAING, worn
down as he is with his Indian labours, has done at
once, in the " Minute'' before ns. It is one every
way worthy of a man who is, not only nobly con-
scious of integrity and industry is a most responsi-
ble post, but worthy of one who must feel that he
is dealing with obstinacy and stupidity such as
nothing but Whig connections could have placed
at the head of the Indian Government. Our
readers lately saw how Sir C. WOOD has been doing
his best to thwart the policy of Lord STAN-
LEY in encouraging one of the most valu-
able companies ever formed for the investment
of English capital in India—his conduct in that
case really amounted to bad faith as well as stu-
pidity. Now, we have our Indian Secretary per-
versely insisting on a mode of stating accounts
which his superior in knowledge and intelligence
rejects, and then because he did so turning round
and lecturing the official inferior, but intellectual
superior, as if Mr. LAING were a " blunderer' and
the acute Sir CHARLES WOOD—how appropriate
the name—had found him out.
Perhaps our readers who do not care about
figures will read with most interest the manly
closing paragraphs of Mr. LAING'S minute :

" I now conclude the last lines which I shall write in the
capacity of the Financial Member of the Council of the
Governor-General in India, Whether my health would
have permitted of my te:eller:3;oi: doubtful, but of course this
despatch decides the ci After sharing in what I
believe to be the signal success
of the concluding act of
Lord Canning's Indian administration, I cannot serve
tinder a minister who views a matgria
part of that policy
so differently, as to think that it callef
r public censure

and disavowal.
"It is now just 18 months since I first landed in India,
and during this period I have been absent six month from

severe illness.

" I found India with a deficiency estimated by the Go.
vernment at £6,000,000; I leave it with a surplus.
" I found it with an annual expenditure, open to revision,
of £29,365,066 ; I leave it with one of £23,454,087
"I found it with a cash balance below £12,000,000; I
leave it with one of £17,783,978.
" I found it with gloom and despondency prevailing,
great animosity of races and parties, and wide-spread dis-
affection and discontent ; I leave it with one universal
feeling of hopefulness and satisfaction, and amidst general
expressions of loyalty and attachment from the natives of
India to the British rule.

" I have no wish to claim more than my fair share of
credit as a member of Lord Canning's Government for
these results, but if they have failed to secure me against
the repeated expression of disapproval and disavowal on
the part of the Secretary of State, I am recompensed by the
consciousness that I have had no inconsiderable part in
bringing them about, under the guidance and with the con-
stant confidence and approval of that illustrious statesman
.who has been taken from us, and in cordial co-operation
withcolleagues such as Sir Bartle Frere and Mr. Beadon,
who
have been selected as the fittest men for the highest
posts in India.

If I required any further consolation I should find it in
the belief that there a
tasingle intelligent man of any
as as, ra
ister of Indiace, or religion in
, India,under
who does not recognise that
min
moat arduous circumstances,
1 have endeavoured to do
my day adrldesely and faithfully,
and that my labours have been attended
more success than any one in India (111 the whole with
had ventured to an-

ticipate." --- --
And what now is the gist of the actual