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

111 E INDIAN BUDGET.

We 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 mill-
fury 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 and 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 £9,230,129, 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 ornmis-
sariat of Madras of £300,000; while the estimated
receipts from proposed taxes to the extent of three-
fourths of a million proved a failure, there was an
unexpected increase in the Public Works Depart-
ment, the railway account was wrong by £833,000,
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 errors as these are a
proof of the necessity for an immediate and radical
change of the system which originated them. The
actual deficit of 91 millions arises thus :

Income £37,706,209
Charges (including stores horn England) 41,770,008

Deficit in India
Deduct railway returns

£3,783,609
Add deficit in England

Total deficit

If we deduct from this the million allowed
for compensation, a decrease in the military charges
of 11 millibn, 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
18.55-59, 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 201 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-
ordinary sacrifices. The deficit. of Lord Amherst's
time, owing to the Nepaul and Mahratta wars, was
only three millions. • Lord W. Bentinck, after the
Burmese war, had to cope with a deficit of five
years, amounting to only £14,000,000. When Sir B.
.Yeel revolutionised English finance in 18•12,1 he 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 presemt lack of 91 and a
prospective want of 61 millions.
• Deficit has been the almost normal state of In-
dian finance. In the 26 years since 1834, when the
trading functions of the company ceased, there was
a surplus for only seven, Sears, the remaining 19
exhibited large deficiencies. Of the 59 years of
the present century, there were only 15 in which
large additions were not 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 from the
sale of opium are insecure. It is not wise tin. a
great empire to rely Tor more than half its income
on the land, 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-
grent, d for despair. Everything points to a prospeepus
future. Nowhere can be found a richer soil, a finer
climate; a more docile and-industrious population
than in India. Her capabilities for development are
immense ; her railways have proved a great success.
The increase other commerce since 1834 is astound-
ing;
it has risen from 13 to 60 millions sterling.
Her internal prosperity has been equally great.
The sales of estates in default, 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 guieral 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. ExNuditure
must be reduced, but recourse must be had to
new sources of taxation. At present the whole
amount, of taxes paid by India is £9,027,97.3 a year,'
for the lan4 revenue is rent, and China pays for
opium.
taxed only ls. 4d. a head, while in England the rate
per
newrs i
ch a
£2 3s.
of 132,292,000, India is
.pul
The
taxes proposed by Ur. Wilson were
fourfold.

• 1. Customs...lt
eahra,:
clic' ekacrditi
tariff
found that the increase
from 10 to :20 per cent
of duties by last
on certain articles
yield the expected iitere-a'se the import, and did not
the rate is. to be 10 • • ' ot revenue. Henceforth
pit cent. Tran•• duties
sit on art,
dies passing froin native states t British
and vice versa, amounting, as i:
the exh territory,
li,e oi cuteh
wool, to 10 p,...r cent. export and 3
are abolished ; native producers wiliTtrlZ-111; CmPrt,
e encou-
raged. On the principle that an export duty should
e
not be levied. on articles in which India a m to)fre tt x
with other nations in neutral markets, tea,e
jute, hemp, hides, flax, and wool Will pass out free,
and maps and prints, like books, be admitted free.
The total annual :less will be £82,000. But. t:,;..,
India . is the only country which produces salt-
pAre,.and any increased duty will fall ultimately
on the consumer, that article is charged £5 Ws 4 ton.
The duty on manufactured tobacco is raised to ls.
a pound, and cn the raw article to 6d. a pound.
Cotton twist, which was rated a 5 per WA, or

lower than piece goods, because it is in an earlier
stage of manufacture, is raised to 10 per cent.
The same reason would apply to igrey cloth, as
compared with the bleached, dyed, and printed ar
tide. But existing contracts now afloat will be
admitted at the old duty. Thus we have a tariff
imposing one single uniform ad valorem, duty of 10
per cent: on all dutiable articles except beer, wine,

and spirits, which remain unaffected. The total
gain to the state by this modification of the tariff
is £351,700. The standing orders were suspended
to allow of the bill being at once passed through
council, and it came into operation on the 20th
February.

IL—Trades License Bill.—The license duty pro-
posed i 3 extremely moderate, but it is meant to be
passed for ever. It consists of three rates :-Ist,
two shillings a year on artisans, including weavers,
lather workers, and small traders, but excluding
the agricultural menial classes in village commu-
nities who Are attached to them, and are generally
paid in grains. 2d, eight shillings a year on retail
shopkeepers and small manufacturers, who work
for local retail sale ; and 3d, one pound on whole-
sale traders, bankers, manufacturers, and profes-
sional men. These rates will be uniform, and
apply to all of each class without any discrimina-
tion as to incomes or extent of business. The
licenses are to be taken, out each year. Thus a
complete register of trades will be formed, and act
as a check against evasion under the income tax.,
lll.—lncome Tax.—The tax will apply to all
incomes above the limit of £2O, a year. From that
sum to £3O the rate will be two per .cent. On all
incomes above £5O the rate will be four per cent.,
of which three will be paid to the public treasury,
and one be appropriated to strictly local purposes.
In the appropriation of the latter, municipalities,
where they exist, will have a voice as in the United
StAtes. There will be four schedules—No. 1 will

.nclude income derived from real property; No. 2,
Income from trades and professions ; No. 3, income

from the public funds ; and No. 4, income from
public salaries. There will be no exemption what-
ever. The case of the Zemindars who are subject
to periodical revisions of settlement, will be met by
levying the tax on one-half the rental which they
pay to Government. At present
.it is 66 per
cent., one-half of which represents the net income
of the Zemindar. But the same standard will
obviously not apply to estates under the per-
petual settlement. The several provisions of the
bill for assessing profits are the same as in England,
by voluntary returns made to the commissioners to
their satisfaction. But to meet the peculiarities of
special districts or cities, Government will be at
liberty to adopt any other mode of assessment,
through a punchayet for instance, or by levying a
lump sum on a certain city or community.
IV.—Tobacco Tax.-- Home-grown tobacco will be
taxed at a rate corresponding as nearly as possible
with the import duty, that is, sixpence a pound on
the raw, and a shilling on the manufactured article.
There will be„ difficulty in levying such a tax, but
when an English Minister makes such an excuse he
his told that he holds office for the purpose of over-
coming difficulties.
Such are the new taxes. They are equitable and
just to all alike ; they infringe no principle of wise
legislation; they offer no impediment, on the con-
trary, they remove hindrances to future develop-
ment. They may involve opposition—even risk and
danger—but it is our duty to incur these that we
may remove a greater evil, the deranged state of the
finances. As to reduction. There is much room for
improvement and re-arrangement, but none for re-
duction of the civil expenditure. As in England, that
must rise with increasing prosperity. But a great
reduction can be made in the military departments,
not in the pay and emoluments of either officers or
men, but in tile numerical strength, by a better dis-
tribution of forces, and by contracting commissariat
and military expenditure. The native army must
be reduced to the smallest possible minimum, the
country held by European forces, and by a police
somewhat of the character of the Irish constabulary.
to perform all civil and quasi-military duties.
The deficit is 91-, millions, and will be- 62 .next
year. What the new taxes will yield India happily
affords no data from which to form an idea. But,
however sanguine we may be as to their result, large
military reductions will be necessary until we come
to the expenditure of 1856-57. In the conclusion of
his speech Mr. Wilson declared against an imperial
guarantee for the Indian debt. He urged
the necessity for administrative changes, so
that the finance department should control the
revenue, and that the local governments should be
tied down by annual estimates for each branch of
expenditure. What is wanted is central control and
local responsibility.
For the present there will be no necessity for a
loan. The cash balance in the Indian treasuries is
£15.000,000, and in England £4,600,000, the
highest point which it has reached for many years.
Until the new taxes become fruitful and the reduc-
tions are carried out, this will be found sufficient.
• Mr. Wilson sat down, promising to hear and weigh
• all objections in detail, but declaring the crisis too
serious for argument and discussion. The time for
L energetic action has came. He gave notice of a bill
to extend to the whole of India a system of well
secured convertible paper note currency, to be in-
troduced either on the 25th inst., or on the 3d of
March,

Sufficient time has not yet elapsed to allow of an
expression of opinion fram all classes and all quar-
ters as to Mr. Wilson's financial measures. There
can be no doubt that ,they will be passed in all
their entireness. We believe them to be equal to
the difficulty which they have been brought for-
ward to remove. Though a four per cent, income-
tax will fall heavily on the public, we believe the
public will willingly bear it. There may be oppo-
sition on the part of the native land and fund
holders, and the organ of the former has already
begun to grumble ; the license tax may be difficult
of collection from theaartisans, and the 2 per cent.
income tax may be met by passive resistanee in the
shape of fraud on the part of the natives. We have
throughout disapproved of the tobacco tax, which
we lock upon as oppressive. But we.have as much
confidence in Mr. Wilson's " executive ability and
power to give effect" to his measures, as admiration
of the wisdom which has planned them. We believe
that the new taxes will yield far more than he an-
ticipates ; that even without reduction they will
extinguish • the deficit, and render it possible
within the next five years for us to look upon an
income tax as no more a permanent impost than it
is in England. If Mr. Wilson is able, without
universal opposition from the natives, to carry his
measures into effect, he will, indeed, justify the
opinion which sent him out to India as even some-
thing more than her Chancellor of the Exchequer.

THE NATIONAL GALLERY.

0

The choice collection of pictures fohned, for the
most part within the last 20 years, by M. Edmund
Beaucousin at Paris, has been recently purchased
for the National Gallery for the sum of £9,200.
The condition of taking a whole collection generally
supposes a considerable elimination, but in this in-
stance, out of 46 pictures, 11 only have been con-
sidered superfluous. The addition of 35 specimens,
following upon those purchased at the Northwick
sales, will tax the ingenuity of the authorities at the
National Gallery to exhibit the new acquisitions
satisfactorily. It appears that, to meet the present
necessity, a screen is to be placed in the west room
of the Gallery in' Trafalgar-square, low enough" not
to obstruct the distant view of large pictures on the
walls, but affording'sufficient superficial extent to
accommodate some of the smaller, works already in
the Gallery. By :this arrangement—which must
be regarded as temporary only, and which may
even serve to hasten the decision of the question
I respecting a IICW National Gallery—the recently
purchased pictures can occupy fitting places on the
walls. The work of placing them and of making
the requisite preparatory changes will of necessity
be gradual, there being only two days in the week
(Thursday and Friday) when such operations are
'practicable.
As yet, the portion of the Beaucousin collection
which is exhibited to public view consists of the
following pictures,:—A " Portrait of a Man," by
Mabuse ; the " Death of the Virgin," by Martin
Sehon ; this excellent specimen of a rare master
wag formerly in the Gallery of the King of Hol-
land ; an "Allegory of Venus, Cupid, and Time,"
by Angelo Bronzino, probably the artist's master-
piece ; it was painted, according to Vasari, for
Francis I. of France, and about 30 years since it
appears to have been in the Gallery at Althorp ;
"The Virgin and Child, 'St. Catherine, and St. John
the Baptist," by Titian, formerly in the sacristy of the
church of the Escurial, and subsequently in the
Coesvelt collection; two half figures, life size,
called " Daphnis" and " Chloe," by Paris Bordone ;
a Magdalen reading, by Roger Van der Weyden
the younger ; a whole-length portrait of a lady, by
Bronzino. Among the works that are to follow are
two portraits, heel size, by itoger Van der Weyden
the younger, of himself and wife; a Virgin and
Child, by Cima da, Conegliano, a small but charac-
teristic specimen, once in the possession of Mr.
Coningham ; lone well known Giulio Romanos,
(rein the Orleans Gallery, and which have been
more than once engrafted; a small Mazzolino,
formerly in the cen thill Gallery; " The Virgin and
Child with Saints,' half figures, by Francia• .a
portraq of Atiosto, probably that mentioned 'by
Itidolfi, by Titian4e.

Tag ORFAT TASMANIA,—Two more of the sol-
diers who returned franc India in the Great Tasmania died
on Thursday. The first was Patriot Leary, ono of those
who Were sent to the workhouse, and the speonri William
Oshorna, who is said to have enlisted and to have passed
the usual niedieal examination. The latter was found dead
in. bed at his
I"l;iniPsi