The Sun.
London, England, 1862-01-14 00:00:00

INDIA.

CALCUTTA, Dec. 9, 1861.—The state of the cash
balances still continues most satisfactory. On the
31st of October last there were in the public trea-
suries throughout the country 14,26,77,020 r. as
compared with 12,23,57,308 r, in 1859, and
12,37,51,592 r. in 1860, being an increase of nearly
two millions sterling. As stated in a former
letter, this increase does not show the immense
strides in prosperity the country has made during
the present year, because in 1860 we started
with a full exchequer, whereas in March
and April of the current year it was doubtful whe-
ther we should be able to tide over the quarter
without a loan. Hence it will be seen that we have
not only made up our lost ground, but are so far
ahead that we may look to the future without
alarm. The state of the public funds seems to indi-
cate that this feeling prevails even among the na-
tives. The Four per Cents., which in September
and October were at about 20 per cent, discount,
have now risen to about 14r. Ba. discount ; the Fives-
and-a-Half have reached a price higher than I re-
collect seeing them quoted at before, being 4r.10a.
to 4r. 14a. prem. This state of things is attribut-
able in the first place to the great reductions in mili-
tary expenditure carried out by Colonel Balfour, and
in the second to the increasingly productive nature
of the taxes imposed last year. I alluded in my last
to the great service rendered to the State by Mr.
Sconce in insisting, in opposition to the late Mr.
Wilson, on his Stamp Bill. I then stated that the
receipts on this account had greatly surpassed ex-
pectation. Within the last week, however, the Go-
vernment has published an authoritative statement
of the receipts on this account for three months of
the current year, and three of the corresponding
period in 1858-59. This return shows the receipts
from August to October, 1858-59, to have been
13,81,410 r., and in the corresponding period in
1861 29,84,117r.,being an increase of more than one-
half. The return of the income tax for the same
period, viz., from August to October, 1861, shows
38,75,126 r., or only one-fourth more than the once
despised Stamp Act. Indeed, if the returns for
these three months are to be taken as an average
for the year, the income tax would appear to be
worth little more than a million and a half. I have
reason to believe, however, that this will be found
under the actual amount.
Mr. Laing arrived in Calcutta on the 30th ult.
On the sth inst. the three representative associa-
tions of the city—the Chamber of Commerce, the
Trades' Association, and the British Indian Asso-
ciation—presented him a united address. This
address showed more sympathy and a better under-
standing between the rulers and the ruled than any
that I can recall to mind as having been offered to
one in Mr. Laing's position. In it the natives com-
bined with the Europeans to express their appre-
ciation of the wise measures of Government, and
the satisfaction with which they had borne the
taxes which it had been so necessary to impose. On
the subject of cotton, one assertion which they made
is well worthy of consideration in England. It fully
bears out the conviction I have always expressed,
that Manchester had but to offer fair terms to
obtain any amount of cotton she might require.
" We would briely remark," said the spokesman of
the address,—
"That, if those interested in the consumption of
Cotton in Great Britain will put their shoulder to
the wheel in this, the time of their adversity, they
will find the people of this country, both European
and native, willing to help them. Much has already
been done both by the Government and the mer-
chants of India to meet this emergency—as much
probably as can be done with safety until more evi-
dence is forthcoming that the capitalists of Lanca-
shire and elsewhere are willing to take their part
in the risk and expense attending the speculation.
The fact is established that cotton can be produced
to almost any extent in India; but the fact is not
yet established that Indian cotton will always find
in Lancashire a profitable market."
Mr. Laing's reply was satisfactory on all points.
His remarks on the subject of the cultivation of
cotton, of the benefit which must accrue to the
natives could a permanent market be obtained in
England, and of the general improvement in the
aspect of affairs in India since he first landed there,
are so pertinent and well put that I give them
entire. After adverting to other matters, he thus
alluded to cotton :
" If, as I hope, the temporary stimulus given by
the present rise of price is to lead to the permanent
substitution of Indian for American cotton to a
large extent in the market of Europe, it is evident
that this result can only be attained by a perma-
nent improvement in cotton cultivation in India.
If it be true, as I have seen it stated, that an acre of
land in the United States produces on the average
from 2001 b. to 3001 b. of cotton, worth 6d. per lb.,
while the average produce of an acre in India is
less than 100 lb., of a quality not worth more than
4d., this is an inequality which can only be over-
borne by special and temporary causes, and 'which,
in the long run, must give the command of the
market to the slave-grown cotton of America over
the free-labour cotton of India. But if it be also
true, as from all that I have heard I fully believe,
that by using improved seed and by better cultiva-
tion the quality of Indian cotton may be made equal,
if not superior, to that of average New Orleans, and
the quality per acre may be largely increased, then
the conditions of the question are totally altered,
and the cotton of India may permanently supplant
that of America. Well, what is required to attain
this desirable result ? Mainly the completion of
communications and the presence in the cotton dis-

tricts of a large number of European ageiit;.to
make advances, to introduce better seed, to prescribe
and set the example of better cultivation, and, in!a
word, to do for cotton on a large scale what the
coffee and tea planters, the jute, linseed, and salt-
petre merchants, and I only express my own con-
viction when I add the great majority of indigo
planters, have done and are doing in other parts of
India. And if they succeed in this, who will reap
the chief benefit ? 2001 b. of cotton at 6d. is
50r., while 100 lb. at 4d. is only 16r. 83., and
the difference will go mainly to the native who
owns and the native who cultivates the
acre. In conclusion, let me say shortly that
when I look at the state of things now and
at that which I found not 12 months ago, when I
first landed on the shores of India, I feel great con-
fidence in the future of this interesting and mag-
nificent country. Much doubtless remains to do, but
it does seem to me that an impulse has been given
and progress realised which are an earnest of further
improvement, and while my health permits me to
remain among you you may depend upon it that my
best energies shall be devoted to completing the I
financial reforms which have been begun, and car-
rying out the system of policy which history will
identify with the latter years of Lord Canning's
administration."

On the same day the landholders and Commercial
Association presented their address. This was mainly
remarkable as eliciting from Mr. Laing opinions on
111r.Beadows suspended Contract Law, and the ex-
portation of Coolies, " the life-blood and marrow of
the country." Mr. Laing was very explicit on both
points. Regarding the first, he said that he thought
that the misunderstandings that had induced the
Home Government to object to the Contract Bill
had been removed by explanation, and that no ob-
jection would now exist as to passing a measure of
the same purport, provided only that the remedy
should be of the nature of a civil and not of a cri-
minal proceeding. On the second point he expressed
his agreement with the Association that India had
no redundant supply of labour, but he added that
we could oppose no obstacles to the free transfer of
labour to other countries who could afford to outbid
us. He advised the community to organise internal
emigration schemes, to transplant labourers from
places where they were redundant to localities in
which their services would be needed, and added
that the Government would not object to see Assam
converted into a second Ceylon or Mauritius. The
following are his own expressions on the subject :
" As regards the contract law, I think a greater
mistake was never committed than in supposing it
to be a measure introduced in the interest of a sac•-
tion of Europeans against the natives. Lord Can-
ning's previous conduct might, I think, have been
a sufficient guarantee that no measure of

such a nature would have been allowed to emanate
from his Government. But, in truth, it is a question
in which the native has a far larger inte7( st than
any one else. There are other fields for English
capital than India, and if you drive the enterpiising
settler to Australia or New Zealanl it is by no
means clear that you injure him so much as you do
the population here, which would have benefitted
by his presence. Moreover, the advances by Euro-
peans are but a trifling part of the total advances
annually made in India, which must always remain
in the hands of the natives themselves. Now, bad

security is only another word for high interest and
if the practical remedy against breach of contract is
slow and expensive, the lender, whether he be Eu-
ropean or native, must compensate himself either
by paying for the produce below its market value,
or by charging an usurious rate for his advances.
And even more than this, if by lax legislation you
encourage fraud, you impoverish population in the
exact degree in which you make them dishonest. I,

in my experience of life, have never seen an excep-
tion to the rule that in the long run honesty is the
best policy,' and if you want to see the ryot better
clothed, better fed, and better housed, I know of
nothing you can do for him half so effectual as mak-
ing him truthful and honest in his dealings. For
these reasons it was a matter of great surprise and
regret to me to find that so much misapprehension
existed on the subject at home. I believe, however,
that public opinion there is very much changed and
that Manchester especially views the question very
differently when it comes to be presented in the
practical form of ' xao contract law, no cotton.' I
have reason to belive also that the misunderstand-
ings which led the Home Government to object to
the passing of Mr. Beadon's Bill are so far removed
by explanation that there will be no obstacle to our
passing and carrying into practical effect any mea-
sures necessary to punish fraudulent breaches of
contract, provided the remedy is in the nature of a
civil and not of a criminal proceeding. I say
frankly I should have proposed myself a criminal
proceeding for the sake of the moral effect in re-
pressing the fraud, but I am not wedded to
the form, provided the substance be attained, and I
hope that shortly after the meeting of the new Legis-
lative Council we may be in a position to pass such a
law to give a summary and cheap remedy to those
who advance capital directly to the ryots for cotton
or other produce. Lastly, as regards coolie emi-
gration, I entirely agree with you that India has
no redundant supply of labour. On the contrary,
I believe that her soil could support twice the pre-
sent population in a far higher degree of comfort, if
the cultivation of waste lands and the improved cul-
ture of existing tracts were carried as far as another
generation may hope to see. It would be a suicidal
policy, therefore, in any way to force emigration,
but we can oppose no obstacles to the free transfer
of labour to other localities who can afford to outbid

us for it. To certain places some amount of emi-
gration is inevitable, as to the Mauritius and Ceylon
for the advantage of sea transit from Madras, and
the proximity of their fertile lands to ports of ship.
ment gives them a certain command of the labour
market. To this extent emigration is healthy, and
the Government cannot interfere to prevent the
poor coolie from going where he can earn the best
wages, and, indeed, it would be shortsighted as well
as cruel to attempt it, for many of these men return
after a time and bring with them both money and
habits of acquired industry. But beyond this the
remedy is with yourselves. Organize internal
emigration schemes and come before the Government
with well-considered practical measures, by which
the coolie may be transplanted as a free labourer,
with due protection, sanitary and otherwise, from
places where labour is redundant to places where it

is deficient, and you may depend upon it that the

Government of India will not object to see Assam
converted into a second Ceylon or Mauritius. Upon
these and other similar questions, however, I would
say come freely to the Government whenever you
see a practical evil to redress, or a practical remedy
to apply. The advantage is great to you and still
greater to the Government of coming to the foun-
tain head and ascertaining by viva voce discussion
how matters really stand, and what is feasible for
the common object of promoting improvements.'
Orders, it is said, have arrived to put a stop to
all expenditure on the defences of Singapore. The
fort in that plaee has been constructed, but the
barracks have not yet been completed. I read the
other day in a local paper a bon mot attributed to
a French officer at Saigon on this subject, which, it
was stated, had caused something like a panic at
Singapore. " You English," he said, "have a fort
and no men ; we have men, but no fort." The
French officers did not, perhaps, recollect that in a
week India could pour thousands into Singapore,
and possibly might turn the tables on Saigon.
Several of the Calcutta Baboos, among whom
were some of those who lately distinguished them-
selves in their demonstrations against Sir IVlordannt
Wells, have presented an address to the Lieute-
nant-Governor of Bengal, in which, while express-
ing their deep sense of gratitude and admiration for
the many beneficent measures adopted by his Hon-
our to vindicate the true relations in the eye of the
law between the indigo manufacturers and the
ryots of Lower Bengal, they point to " shortcom-
ings and deficiencies in the Administration, the re-
sults of unheeded years, the removal of which has
an intimate relation to the complete solution of the
indigo question." The Lieutenant-Governor, in
reply, expressed his great satisfaction that so many
of his native fellow-subjects should have approved
his policy in the indigo business, but made no
allusion to the unreformed deficiencies and short-
comings referred to. It is curious, and certainly
deserving of remark, that in this address the natives
expressed their appreciation of the importance of
English energy and capital in India. It is a re-
markable sign of the times that they should speak
such language, for nothing is more certain than that
twelve months ago their opinions were all the other
way. Can it be that they have become satisfied by
the events of the past year that the presence of an
European settler in a district is the best guarantee
they could have against administrative oppression ?
This was the opinion of the Hon. Mr. Shore, him-
self for many years a magistrate in Bengal, and
one of the best friends the natives ever had. It is
something for men accustomed to crouch before
authority to see that the law may be safely ap-
pealed to, and that not even officials are safe from
its action.

You will have heard direct from Bombay of the
great increase in the export of cotton from that
Presidency, and of the great rise in price. The ex-
port in 1858 was only 250,000 bales, and in 1860
371,000. For the year ending the 30th of Septem-
ber last the export had reached 916,358 bales, and
prices in many instances had doubled. Nearly the
same post that brought this intelligence to Calcutta
conveyed also a Minute by Sir William Denison,
Governor of Madras, in which he stated his opinion
that the great surplus of cotton supposed to exist in
the interior and only awaiting cheaper means of con-
veyance to market was imaginary. Yet in one year
for the last six months of which only was there a
demand for cotton, Bombay has quadrupled its
exports !
It is expected that Lord Canning will embark
for Rangoon and the Godavery in the course of the
month. A resolution has lately been published by
which the province of Nagpore and the districts of
Saugor and Nerbudda are united under the title of
Central Provinces, with a chief commissioner as
administrator, on the same plan as Oude.
Colonel Elliot is appointed chief commissioner.