The Sun.
London, England, 1859-09-12 00:00:00

__-
BRITISH INDIA AND ITS FINANa

(From the Derbyshire Courier)
ritish
India, at that grand starting•point of all improh-e.s-
The nation has arrived, with regard to B
ment in this country,
his hands significantly and when John Bull opening
eyes, and thrusting 1,
resolutely into his breeches'-pockets, pronounce
s
that " something must be done." oing
something is tog appoint somebody with a good
The first thin now in fashion towards d
salary, who is to do what all the nobodies with
good salaries have failed to do. Ministers have
caught their somebody. Passing by Lord Elgin,
who is too great and too independent ; repudiatil
Sir John Lawrence, who is too good, they haN._
pitched upon the arithmetical member for •Westn
bury, Mr. James Wilson. Mr. Wilson is a man
of figures ; he has had practical experience of the
advantages of buying in the dearest and selling In
the cheapest market ; he knows all about balance:
sheets, the price of stocks, shares, bonds, scrip, aned.
omnium. The national balance-sheet of India pr
sents an unpleasant array of figures on the wrong
side of the account, and so who but Mr. James Wilse
of the Economist, can put it right ? True, his ante-
cedents furnish no great security for successful
financial arrangement, but let us hope that he
may
manage the affirirs of British India better than he
did his own.
To the Cutlers' Feast, at Sheffield, therefore,
comes the Right Honourable James Wilson, "the
second person," Mr. Alderman Matthews assuresn-
us, " in our Indian empire, being, in fact, the Cha
cellor of the Exchequer in India."
if net,
Mr. Wilson's address on the occasion
novel was amusing. It was the proudest day of
his life, nothing but the deepest sense of duty:,
would have induced him to accept his "responsible
—and lucrative—appointment in India. But India,
" the brightest gem in the British Crown," was 1,
danger. Duty !my country ! ten thousand a-year •
" Ha ! thou hast touched me nearly !"
From the poetical and heroic, Mr. Wilson ascends,
to the financial and the practical. " Gentlemen's
he says, with a mental glance at the palmy daYts
of the Economist, when people believed its fa
and relied on its figures, " gentlemen, finance is not
mere arithmetif. Finance is a great policy. Jt lies
at the bottom—at the root of government in every
fina
country. Without sound finance no good governulen
nce
is possible. Without sound policy no sound
it possible." These are brave words ! Finance lifs,
at the root of good government, and I, the Bice";
Honourable James Wilson, am standing, whet h
on my head or my heels I have yet scarcely learn ea
,
on the top of the financial tree.
And what does Mr. Wilson propose to do ?
reading his speech we defy any one to discover tue
.
announcement of anything approaching to a pr,ee,
bable solution of the Indian difficulty. Free tra.c?.,,
Mr. Wilson tells us, is " good all over the well-are
Very well—but India must possess trade, hel.°of
that trade can be made free. With millions r
acres of rich land uncultivated, with tens of
millions of natives willing to work, but at preset?:
rice, paid a penny or twopence a
scarcely clothed at all, fed on vegetables or a
Aft,er
day for thlabour, and oppressed and pillaged, poor as they ar
ore]:
0,
by extortionate tax-gatherers ; something far me
practical than the abstract financial policy of free
trade is required before the first step in any 11111e-
lioration of their condition can be effected. of
We agree with what is said by Mr. Wilson
the importance of giving Christianity to the natives.
This is most important. Let us trust that 0.11,1,
schoolmasters, missionaries, clergy,.and bishops wilts
as years roll on, effect most beneal improveraell_
among the native population in this direction;
But this will be a very gradual and protract."'
process. We do not send out Mr. Wilson to In
11.
-
culcate the principles of the Christian religiel?l,
but to rectify the finances of India, and to do
with as little delay as possibl. Then there is " tcrile
difficulty of caste, of which Mr. Wilson's kil:r-;
ledge must be of a very limited nature. He ri,eied
further, to railways, steam navigation, and toe -
ministration of equal justice. We are already °lli
tributing largely to the two former objects, alle.
Mr. Wilson can teach little to such men as SirA,a
Trevelyan about the administration of justice. 1"..-a
so Mr. Wilson, after uttering the absurd assertl.
that Peel put our finances in " a flourishing 0114
tion," falls back on the hope that "the iniPrev:s
fiscal and commercial legislation" which, he sat;
has done so much for England, may succeed
' °-
India in replenishing an exhausted exchequer, 0
raising the social condition of 200 millions ;
natives.
,o.We will endeavour to give a more definite 00
nion on the financial requirements of India than,t
has been given by Mr. Wilson. He tells us the:
" without sound finance no good government 1;4
possible." and we tell him that without a souna
monetary system no sound finance is possible. We
are glad to see that the importance of an improve'
meat in the monetary system of India is no longer
the despised opinion of a few Currency. Reformers
whose watch is before the time in which they live,
but is referred to in the recent Parliamentary
port on India, and is admitted even by the bul
lionist Times. The monstrous absurdity of paying
the army and collecting the taxes in two•shillig
pieces is too barbarous to be retained. raVehr
money is now recognised as a necessity for
India. There can be no doubt that a paper
currency would be a means of giving the SereYs
i,.
and the natives in general a direct interest ill the
stability aad prosperity of the British Govern'
ment. But beyond this a currency is required t°
develope the grand resources of India. There
creation of
from
abundance of capital in India. Land and labour
are the natural elements of capital. There i 5
enormous undeveloped wealth in the fruitful but
uncultivated soil of the country. And there are
millions of able and willing hands waiting too be
employed in the cultivation of this teeming il;
Money, the representative of all capital, and of
land and labour, important elements of capital is
alone wanting to develope the riches of the country.
That money, in the shape of a Paper Currellei,
receivable for taxes, and exchangeable for silver
and gold at its market price, the Government has
the power to supply, immediately, for the use of
India. It might be lent out by a Board appointed
for the purpose, for the irrigation, enclosure, and
improvement of the land. And concurrently with
this an improvement should be made, without
delay, in the land tenures of India. Long leases,
to be followed by the ownership of the land on the
sin a, toeerfl yac
ibelentdicvyo
auotrofargsi encouraged.
fu. s
IThr hieoi
industrious
os
iandlwould. livn
With
indepen-
dent the
00
payment of a moderate tax to Government, should
increased consumption.
in
nhee theenttihen ire
creation of this body would arise an improvement
of all
taxable articles, as well as in • immediate increase
in the receipts from the land-tax.
Whatever difference of opinion
may exist on the
moonetary question, there can be little rational
objection raised to the payment of the troops,
British and native, in Government paper money
As little can be said against a system of Govern-
ment loans and advances which would rescue the
natives from the extortions of the Hindoo money-
lenders, and enable them to borrow money at a
reasonable interest instead of paying 20, 30, or
even 100 per cent., as is sometimes the case at
present.
We commend these suggestions to the considera-
tion of the new Indian financier and of the Govern-
ment. The day of palliatives is past. If India is
to be retained decided measures must be adopted.
And no measure, or set of mehsures,we repeat, cal!
sue ceed without that mainspring of all finan Cita
prosperity, a sound monetary system.

BALMORAL.—The weather at Balmoral has been
much finer than in the metropolis, and the royal faint y
generallyseem thoroughly to enjoy the change The Prince
On
has also been more fortunate than usual in his sport.
the day after the arrival, when the woods of Abergeldie
were driven for deer, the Prince Consort had the good for-
tune to shoot a buck,' and a second one has fallen to his
taken rifle
since. His royal highness, by way of variety, has a
couple of days' grouse shooting, a species of sport, by the
way, which the Prince generally does not much affect
the Queen ;
but he was accompanied by Sir G. Grey, and
and Princess Alice watched the sportsmen. • The estate of
Balmoral is not able to supply the wants of the Castle in
this particular species of game, whatever it may do in the
matter of venison, everything of minor importance being
sacrificed to the deer forest.—Court Journal.
ARRIVAL OF SPECIE.—LIVERPOOL, Saturday.
The Eagle has arrived from Melbourne with 34,000 ounces
of gold. She sailed on the 4th of June.
The Rev. Horace Roberts, 111. A., who was on
board the Great Eastern steamship when the explosion oc-
oiahvnjurperdovhidteennlteinal
aens cdape
teht
erresn, der ed
eu oc-
curred, eado,
h and
assistanceAN,h o, aftteer histhe
pub-
licly returned thanks yesterday at St. Katharine Colemans
church, Fenchurch-street. He subsequently preached an
affecting sermon from the 13th verse of the 56th Poi's'
which was one of the Psalms of the day, "Thou haat de-
livered my soul from death, and my feet from falling, pat
I might walk before the Lord in the land of the living.
LOCUSTS IN YORKSHIRE.—A fine strong specimen
of the migratory locust was found aifew days ago on the waa
of the parish church-yard, Bradford. The insect was about
three inches in length, and was quite active when caught.
A similar visitant was taken up in a cornfield near Harro-
gate a day or two previously.
h De-
THE LATE FLOGGING AT WOOLIVICII.—...O
puty-Inspector-General of Hospitals, and principal medisV
officer at Woolwich, J. E. T. Paratt, in a letter "'ith
the editor of the Times, and dated Sept. 10, says :
reference to the letter from your correspondent at Woo,'
.ribcallg
in the Times of the 9th, headed whose
to state that yesterday morning I examined the ma_ a
small
case is therein described, and found the remains I
f toile blade-
boil, the size of a shilling, over the upper part o
" Military Floggint a
_f small
reached, and two or three small pimples, the size
laceration.
bone, where the mark of the lash appeared not to have
peas, where the punishment was inflicted, the
to have
from which was so superficial as
n'e uently had
penetrated deeper than the skin, and coedsto
i lacontacfly
nearly healed." At the end of the letter the
1 and w"
September ,
remarks, "The nian.was flogged on
examined on the 9th" evidently not