The Sun.
London, England, 1860-03-19 00:00:00

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MR. WIL)ON IN INDIA.

A letter, dated Calcutta, February 8, says :
" Mr. Wilson has returned, and has promised to
make his financial statement on the 18th inst. l.t
is expected with extreme anxiety, the ' Bazaar,' or
native Exchange, having made up its mind that
Mr. Wilson is to restore the golden age. Treasury
secrets are well kept, but I fear my native friends
are about to burn their fingers, and Mr. Wilson's
statement, though satisfactory to politicians,
not be so pleasant to the money-market. A con-
siderable deficit is at all events a certainty. Mr.
Wilson's plans have, of course, not oozed out, but
I may state with some confidence that a plan has
been adopted for removing the main cause of our
embarrassments—the preposterous military expen-
diture. The extravagance in this department con-
tinues almost undiminished, and the following list
of the Bengal army alone, which is official, though
not signed, will show you its extent, and character :
—Royal Engineers, 38 men ; two troops Horse Ar-
tiller. 389; 14 companies Foot Artillery, 2,592;
four J)ragoon reg•iments, 2,433 ; 46 Line regiments,
43,058 ; total, 48,510. The local Europeans, though
terribly reduced by the sti ike, still muster—Sappers
and Miners, 861 ; three brigades Horse Artillery,
1,297; nine battalions Foot Artillery, 2.115; five
regiments Bengal European Cavalry, 1,014 ; six
regiments European Infantry, 1,949 ; total, 7,266.
The native troops comprise 15 regiments of Native
Infantry, 10,656; 14 regiments of Irregular Cavalry,
5,914 ; 4 regiments of Sikh Cavalry, 2,254 • 19 Pun-
jab Fxtra Corps, 16,313 ; the Governor-General's
Body Guard, 130; 9 battalions of Local Infantry,
8,101 ; Khelat-i Ghilzie. Ferozepore, and Loodiana
Regiments, 2,778 ; Civil Corps—Allvghur Regi-
ment, 1,033 ; Meywar Bheel Corps, 1,030 ; Malwa,
539 ; Joudpore Legion, 711; Assam Local Artillery,
105; Assam Local Militia, 183; Darjeeling Sebun-
dees, 315 ; Kooky Levy, 214 ; Nagpore Irregular
Cavalry, 554 ; Nagpore H Field Battery, 109;
three regiments of Nagpore Irregular Infantry,
2,754 ; Pegu Light Infantry, 791; Bhopal Levy,
873; five regiments of Punjab Cavalry, 2,956 ;
six regiments of Infantry, 4,196; Garrison Com-
pany Artillery, 81; three Punjab Light Field
Batteries, 425; four regiments Sikh Infantry,
.2,980 ; Hazara Mountain Train, 68 ; Peshawur
ditto, 99 ; Guides Corps, 555 ; Mhairwara
Battalion, 755; Meena Battalion, 554 ; Extraor-
dinary-14 regiments Irregular Cavalry, 7,745;
Lahore Light Horse, 154 ; Camel Corps, 734
15 Levies, 10,327 ; Ist and 2d Gwalior In-
fantry, 1,163 ; Kamroop Regiment, 912 ; East
India Regiment, 310; Lucknow Regiment, 820;
Loyal Poorbeabs, 277 ; total, 90,564. Bengal
Military Police, 8,000; Oude ditto, 12,000 ; North-
West Provinces ditto, 27,000; Punjab, 10,000;
total, 57,000. Grand total, 147,564.
"Add the armies of Madras and Bombay, and
the new military police of the former presidency,
and we have a native force of nearly 300,000 men,
and a native army, police excluded, of 210,000.
The whole of this is to be swept away within the
next 12 months. All recruiting is already stopped,
and all the levies ordered to be gradualiy dis-
banded. India is to be garrisoned by a force of
80,000 Europeans, aided for fatigue duties by half
that number of natives, selected from all classes,
Goorkhas. hill-men, Madrassees, Jews, Mahrattas,
and Hindostanees. The native force will garrison
the frontier and a few remote stations unfavourable
to European life, and supply sentries and fatigue
parties in cantonments. Each Presidency will,
besides, have an armed police, organised precisely
like the Irish constabulary, but very strictly limited
in numbers, and armed, if with firearms at all, only
with the lightest of carbines. I need scarcely say
if this plan is correct, and I believe it to be so in
all essentials, the financial difficulty is at an end,
and the empire is as safe against revolt as Great
Britain. My only doubt is whether the power
of Government will be sufficient to sweep away
the mass of interests which will resolutely
oppose themselves to a reform so wise and so ex-
tensive. It will probably irritate every old Indian
at home, and though they do not now represent
Indian opinion, they do speak the sentiments of a
powerful section of the army. It must not be for-
gotten in considering the scheme that we have in
India no trouble with disbanded soldiery. They sub-
side at once into the population. Lord Hardinge
disbanded 50,000 men in a day. The great Sikh
army, defeated by Lord Dalhousie, went back to
the plough till Sir John Lawrence summoned them
to arms to reconquer Hindostan.

"About the financial plan nothing is known, but
the following extract from the Friend of India re-
presents pretty accurately the talk of the districts
through which Mr. Wilson passed :—' We are un-
willing to join in the game of guessing, but one or
two statements reach us from so many quarters that
we are compelled to believe they at least foreshadow
the truth. The belief throughout the North-West
is that Wilson's tour has resulted in decisions

of this kind: that the budget of revenue expenditure
should be presented to the Legislative Council be.

fore the close of the financial ijear; that the octroi
on cities, or Punjab plan, is, as a general scheme,

far too dangerous to trade ; that resources should be.

sought first in a broad scheme of military reduction
—so broad, perhaps, as to leave only a European
army and a native police ; that th© deficiency of the
revenue should be made up by a trade-tax, levied

as a house-tax on traders with less than 10Or. a

month, and as a graduated license-tax on all above
that rank ; that the great difficulty of Indian ad-

ministration connected with pure finance—viz., the
slow circulation of blood to the heart, should be cor-

rected by the issue of a State paper currency,
through or not through the State banks.'"