The Sun.
London, England, 1856-06-30 00:00:00

" The first sod of the Bombay, Baroda, and
Central India Railway was turned on the Ist inst.
at Surat by Mr. Davies, of the civil service Mr.
Ford, the engineer in charge, officiating.
"Here the weather is the chief topic of conver-
sation. All over India have been storms, and we,
with the south-west inonsooli impending, have not
escaped them. You will hear from another pen of
the gale or cyclone that has visited Calcutta, and,
besides more serious damage, cost the lives of up-
wards of 1,000 crows. Here our storms have not
been accompanied by much wind, but have rolled
down in thunder from the hills. But the weather-
wise do not expect the real monsoon till the next
spring tides, or about the 2d proximo. By great
care, and by the energetic and early measures taken
by Government, the water famine that we had so
much reason to dread has-been staved off, and there
is nt.t mach sickness in the B:tz tar. Every day
• now, however, is of moment. The Water Com-
mittee have lost a valuable member, and the Go-
vernment an estimahle servant in the person 4.,
Major Criticksbank, of the Engineers, who died od
Saturday of apoplexy following up.a a choleraic
affection. _vlie was a most exceileel)fficer,
.distiu•
guisbed for ability, probity, and :t,4rtesy, and is
universally regretted. _

" The coasting trade has not yet closed, and the
state of the Bombay markets has not materially
altered. Money continues easy, and exchange has
declined. Tile rate to-day is 2s 11d."
Our Calcutta correspondent, writing on the 17th
of May, says :
"Public works are stopped. That is the an-
nouncement of the day, though it must not be in-
terpreted so widely as some similar announcements
have been. The Government has suddenly reined
up. All new works, costing more than 10,4)00
rupees, or 1,0001., have been prohibited pending a
reference to the Court of Dims...tors. This measure
does not proceed so much from financial distress as
from the determination of Lord Canning to place
the system upon a new and more rational basis.
An account has just been transmitted home of our
financial position. It, displays a large, and, as far
as human foresight can be trusted, a permanent
surplus'. But the enormous expenditure on new
public works creates an apparent deficit. To charge
these works to Cieaccount of revenue is as ridiculous
as to place the cost of draining a farm to the work-
ing expenditure of one year. The money is, in fact,
a sum raised by mortgage to be devoted to the im-
provement of the estate. The interest only, there-
fore, should be carried to the annual account ; our
brilliant financiers have hitherto carried the prin-
cipal to the hopeless bewilderment of all men ex-
cept themselves. If the Government is resolved to
make these improvements it must borrow money for
them. The works are most of them produciive,
and the only question to be considered is the expe-
diency and prudence of entering into such specu-
lations. This is the point submitted for the final
consideration of the home Government.
" In this country opinion is much divided as to
the policy to be pursued. One party, which includes
every official in Madras and a few in Bengal—
holds that the British Government owes a debt to
the people. It has built few roads, and no aque-
ducts. It has left rivers uncleared. and harbours
unopened. The Madras Presidency has not at this
moment one tolerably convenient harbour. They
would therefore spend—say, 40 millions in reme-
dying this grievance, and trust to the returns of
railways and the increased wealth of the country
for the interest on that money. This party has.
been strongly • backed by England and by a cry
from all Europeans in the interior. Another sec-
tion, becoming gradually more powerful, hold
that this expenditure is a mistake as yet. They
say that .a good police is more important than a
canal, aii honest judiciary than a new road, public
eduuntion than any extent of harbour room. They
would therefore-limit the expenditure on public
works to the surplus left when these great reforms
have been attained.

" A third party, with whom I myself most cor-
dially concur, reject both these extreme opinions.
They hold that s ,cial improvements are more im-
portant than any public works, except such as tend
to improve communication, They would therefore
suspend ail works of irrigation, harbours, or public
buildings, and devote all available resources to the
compleiou of a complete network of railways. That
work once done will pay as no public work has ever
paid. It will treble the military strength of the
empire. It will enable us to rid ourselves of the
subordinate Governments, who now act as drags to
the progress of the central authority. Above all,
it will do for 1.13 what a sitmlar,system has done
for the United States—render the physical vast-
ness of the country an advantage instead of the
heaviest drawback. For the rest, all undertakings
should be suspended in favour of a reformed police,
speedy justice, and, above all, popular education.
" t see you remark strongly on the absurd delays
in the production of Indian accounts. The evil is
a most grave one. The accounts are not published
here lid Parliament has discussed them, and conse-
quently the only public which really understands
and can check them is fairly baffled. The fault is
' that of the House of Commons, which submits to
such tardiness. It is told that the accounts are
difficult to make up, that they must be received
from two hundred collectorates, that the Indian
system precludes speed. This defence is really
nonsensical. The Government sends home punc-
tually to the day what it is pleased to call a sketch
estimate of the preceding year. That account
is in reality most elaborate, liable, doubtless,
to partial error, but not more so than the budget
of a Chancellor of the Exchequer. Our financial
year ends on the 30th of April. There is no reason
whatever—l say it after years' study of the subject
—why a reasonably accurate account of the revenue
and expenditure should not be_ before the House of
Commons by the 15th of July. There will be no
permanent reform in our blundering system of
finance until it so published. The delay takes all