The Sun.
London, England, 1860-03-26 00:00:00

7HZ INDIAN BUDGET.

WEI have now received the full report of Mr.
Wilson's Budget speech, delivered in the Legisla-
tive Council of India, on Feb. 18. It occupies 24
closely printed columns of the Friend of India, and
occupied three hours in delivery. The leading men
of all classes in Calcutta, merchants, civil and mili-
tary officers, Bengalees, Parsees, and others crowded
the Chamber to hear it. The following outline of
Mr. Wilson's statment is from the Friend of India :

After an introduction, in which he referred to
his own appointment, to the bill previously intro-
duced by Mr. Harrington, and now abandoned,
and to the events of the rebellion, and the financial
disorder to which it had given rise, Mr. Wilson
pledged himself to lay before the Council " without
suppression on the one hand, and without exaggera-
tion on the other, the exact state of the financial
position." Government itself suffers most from
secrecy or uncertainty. Though India has no re-
presentative assembly, and it may be idle to specu-
late on the time when it will have such an institu-
tion, there is an enlightened public opinion, a free
press, and free discussion,—all necessary elements
of a prosperous social structure ; by frankness will
the sympathies add aid of the public best be en-
listed.

The final estimate of the• income and expendi-
ture of 1859-60 shows a deficit in India and
England of £9,290,11E9, or nearly three millions
more than the accounts sent home by the govern-
ment of India in September last. This discrepancy
is owing to a mistake in the military expendi-
ture of Bombay of £600,000, and in the c ommis-
sariat of Madras of £300,000 ; while the estimated
receipts from proposed taxes to the extent of three-
fourthg of a million proved a failure, there was an
unexpected increase in the Public Works Depart-
ment, the railway account was wrong byX833,000,
and the Home charges showed an increase of
£640,000 ; the whole amounting to upwards of
three millions. The September statement was
issued in good faith, but such error's as these are a
proof of the necessity for an immediate and radical
change of the system which originated them. The
actual deficit of 9 millions arises thus :

Income D 7,706,209-
Charges (including stores from England)., 41,770,008

Deficit in India .....
Deduct railway returns

Add deficit in England t. £3,783,6,507,060920

Total deficit
If we deduct from this the Million allowed
for compensation, a decrease in the military charges
of 1+ mtilion, and an increase of income from the
salt duties of £410,000, the estimated deficit, of
next year, 1860-61, will be 61 millions. If to
these two deficits we add those of 1857.58 and
1858-59, we have a total deficiency of 37 millions,
which with interest will give 40 millions sterling
as the cost to India of her rebellion. The total
India debt at the present moment is £97,851,807,
of which 20i millions is in London, and the annual
charge of interest is £4,461,029.
We must not lull ourselves into composure by the
fact that there have been financial difficulties before,
and that they have been surmounted by no extra-
ordinaiy sacrifices, The deficit of Lord Amherst's
time, owing to the Nepaul and Mahratta wars, was
only three millions. Lord W. Ilentinck, after the
Burmese war, had to cope with a deficit of five
Pttas, amounting to only £14,000,000. When Sir R.
eel revolutionised English finance in 1842:the had
to meet a difficulty of little more than 10 millions,
the accumulation of six years. We have -to deal
with a deficit of upwards of 37 millions, the fruit of
only- four years, with a present lack of 9+ and a
prospective want of GI millions.

- Deficit has been the almost-normal state of In-
dian finance. In the 26 years since 1834, when the
trading ffinctions of the company teased, there was
a surplus for only seven years, the remaining 19
exhibited large deficiencies. Of the 59 years of
the present century, there •werc Only 15 in which
large additions were hot made to the debt. We
cannot be content to continue in this state. And this
is not the only source of uneasiness as to our re-
venue. ;The five millions a year derived *Om the
sale of opium are insecure. It is not wise for a
' great empire to rely for more than half its income
on the land, r and so to run the risk of op-
pressing the people and impoverishing the ex-
chequer. But bad as is our condition there is, no
ground for despair. Everything points to a prosperottt
future. Nowhere can be found a riclitr soil, a finer
climate a more docile and indttstrious population
than in India. Her 'capabilities for development are
immense; her railways have proved a great success.
'nth increase of her :Jommerce since 1834 is astound-
ing it has non from 13 to 60 millions sterling.
Her internal prosperity has been equally great.
The sales of estates in defkult, which in 1834.5 re-
presented an annual rent of £95,650, were in 1858-9
only £1,449. Arrears of land revenue have almost
ceased to exist. The labouring and cultivating
classes have shared in the general prosperity.
Wages have risen in the last few years in many
eases threefold. This anomaly of the absence
of sympathy between the finances and the
commerce of India must be removed. All
must contribute their share. Expenditure
must be reduced, but recourse must be had to
new sources of taxation. At present the whole
amount of taxes paid by India is £9,027,973 a year,
per
rThileand eiws £2 3s.
proposed hY
for the land revenue is rent, and China pays for
Opium With a population of 132,292,000, India is
taxed only ls. 4d. a head, while in England the rate
last year's tariff nr. Wilson were
fourfold.
1. Customs..4f has
by last
Checked therolintnnolor Import, o :cllidbenti
n found that the increaSe
Ttalisit duties on arti-
oonf douotriteasiob.
yield. the expected increase of NT' • u; that
yield OM% bncetorth
the rate is to be 10 per cent.
cl'es passing front native states to British l'eryltbirt-t
and vice Vern,' amountiug, as in lab A's'e catch
wool, to 10 per cent. export ,hi 3 per cent, import,
are abolished; native producers win thus be encou-
raged. On the principle that an‘export duty should
not be levied on articles in which India hailiDete
with other nations in neutral tnarkets, tea, coffee,
jute, hemp, hides, flax, and wool will pass out free,
and maps and prints, like books, be admitted free.
The total annual loss will be £82,000. But as
India is the only country which produces salt-
petre, and any increased duty will fall ultimately
on the consumer, that article is charged £5 lOs a ton.
The duty on manufactured tobacco is raised to is.
a pound, and en the raw article to a pound.
Cotton t*kt, which TFas rated a 6 per cent. or