The Sun.
London, England, 1859-08-26 00:00:00

T 617 SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, AUGUST 26, 1.859.

who does not feel satisfied that as long as Engbind
lasts he is safe, and that we are no more likely to
hear of the Governor-General taking flight than of
the Sovereign of these realms. But, if this be the
general belief, then it is time to inquire whether it
be sound, and whether there is not some wrong
done by a sort of misunderstanding. Every day
shows the necessity of a thoroughly clear under-
standing, as otherwise there is sure to be a cry of
injustice some day or other. If, for example, the
British Legislature were to announce some day that
it had become politically necessary to abandon ter-
ritory, to change our system in India, to give up
sources of taxation, and that on these accounts the
security was no longer what it had been, and if for
these or other reasons it were to announce a com-
position with the creditors, it would be loudly
argued that England was the actual master of
India, and therefore wholly responsible for the dis-
charge of its debts. Certainly this is not the case
of a mortgage, where the property remains in the
hands of the mortgagor, and the mortgagee has
nothing to do except to, sit by and see that his se-
curity is not made away with. England has full
possession of India, or at least all the interest lately
in the bands of the Company. If she does not
exert the same amount of control over India that
she does over her own people and her own soil, it
is only because she chooses to let things go
their own way. It is she, however, who appoints
the Governor-General, the Commander-in-Chief,
and the rulers of Tndia. She appoints the Secretary
at home, whatever his power; and his Couneil,
whatever its functions. If all these are chosen for
political convenience, and if it is consequently a
chance whether one of them be fit for his place,
that is England's concern ; nay, even if the ar-
rangements are such that, after all, England does
not govern India, and nobody knows who does—
nay, even should it turn out that India is not go-
verned at all, still it is England's fault, and she is
answerable for the bankruptcy that may ensue
under such circumstances.
This, we say, is the belief upon which this loan
has been taken, but if it had been contracted openly
and ostensibly on the Imperial security the terms
would have been those of the British stock market,
and, instead of having to pay 5 per cent. for £97,
we should only have to pay 3 per cent. for £93.
This would make all the difference between diffi-
culty and ease, so far as India is concerned. But it
is impossible to contract one loan on one basis and
another on another, and to borrow one million for
India on the Imperial guarantee would imply a
corresponding action in respect of the whole debt.
Were it found a political necessity to undertake
the Indian debt, it would be not only allowable,
but no more than absolute justice, to reduce the
dividends to the Imperial standard. Even that,
however, would be by no means the most important
consequence of such a change. England would then
insist on governing India in the thing as well as
in the name, and would require both the finance
and every other department to be brought under
the eye of Parliament, A happy step has been
taken in this direction by the appointment of Mr.
James Wilson to the task of unravelling and sys-
tematising Indian finance. This gentleman, how-
ever, is rather a financier than a politician, and
will probably have no power of enforcing his ad-
vice as to our right political relations with the
different parts of our Indian Empire, though
that point has not a little to do with our
revenue and expenditure. He is simply Chancellor
of the Indian Exchequer. There is much for a
statesman to do, and the present Governor-General
has not yet shown the qualities necessary for the
reconstruction of a shattered empire, still less for
its contraction, should that be found necessary,
within narrower, safer, and more profitable limits.
That great question remains for future Parliaments
and for men yet to come. If they who are on the
spot can promise any prospect of holding India in
its present vast extension and its present political
condition without intolerable demands on our popu-
lation and our Exchequer, let them do so ; other-
wise we must be wise in time, and confine ourselves
to what is possible.— Times.