The Sun.
London, England, 1861-08-28 00:00:00

B. LAING.

The following address to Mr. Laing upon his
leaving India, and his reply, will be read with
•
interest:—
TO THE HON. SAMUEL LAING, MEMBER OF THE
COUNt IL OF THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF INDIA.
Hon. Sir,—When we, the public bodies repre-
sented by the undersigned, had last the honour of
addressing you, we expressed our congratulations
on your arrival and accession to the important office
of Financial Member of the Council of his Excel-
lency the Viceroy and Governor-General; we assured
you of the satisfaction with which we saw so re-
sponsible a charge committed to your hands, and of
our confidence in your ability to carry out the object
of your mission, the restoration of the finances of
the Indian Empire to a permanently sound condi-
tion.

In the conviction that no effort on your par
would be left untried to obtain a result of such vita
importance to the present and future welfare a
the country, we were content to await the announce.
ment of your financial policy and the development
of those measures which in your judgment and ex-
perience were essential to an improved system of
financial administration.

You have recently declared that policy and the
means whereby, in your opinion, the grave
difficulties which have so long burdened and
impeded the progress of the empire may be met
and overcome; and it is our grateful duty to
acknowledge the obligation you have imposed upon
us, and to record our sense of the valuable service
you have rendered to the State.
It is not our purpose on this occasion to enter into
the merits of the policy you have enunciated, or of
the measures proposed for its execution ; the object
of our present address is rather to express how
deeply we deplore the circumstances which, after a
brief interval of only six months, have compelled
you to suspend your official labours, and to seek in
rest and relaxation the restoration of your shattered
health, sacrified in the performance of a public duty
of unceasing toil and anxiety.
We desire respectfully to assure you of our sin-
cere sympathy with you under the effects of the
severe illness by which you have been visited, and
which has disabled you from continuing the work
so lately undertaken in the full hope of carrying it
to a successful issue.

For the early and complete re-establishment of
your health yon have our most cordial wishes, and
we earnestly trust you may be enabled to resume
your position in the Council of the Supreme Go-
vernment of India, and realise your own anticipa-
tions in reference to the future prospects of this
great empire.—We have the honour to remain, hon.
sir, your most obedient humble servants,
For the Bengal Chamber of Commerce,
W. FITZWILLIAM, President.
For the Landholders' and Commercial Associa-
on of British India,
WILLIAM MAITLAND, Chairman.
For the Calcutta Trades' Association,
F. JENNINGS, Master.
For the British Indian Association,
JAJA KALIRRISHNA BAHADOOR,
Vice-President.

Calcutta, July 1.
The following is Mr. Laing's reply :
Edinburgh, Aug. 25.
Dear Sir,—l beg to acknowledge the address
which you have forwarded to me on behalf of
the " Bengal Chamber of Commerce," as well as of
the " Landholders' and Commercial Association of
British India," the " Calcutta Trades' Association,"
and the "British Association," to the chairman of
which respective bodies you will be good enough to
communite this reply.
It is unnecessary for me to say how deeply I re-
gretted the necessity of leaving India so prema
turely, and how gratefully I feel the expression of
sympathy from such influential bodies.
I may truly say that my heart was in my Indian
work. It seemed to me that India was the place,
and the present the time, to decide the question
whether our English race is capable not o sly of
colonising new continents and conquering old ones,
but of governing wisely and beneficently for their
own good an empire of 150,000,000 of fellow sub-
jects whose destinies a series of heroic achievements
has associated with the British crown. I can see
no reason why an era of peace and progress should
not succeed one of wars and conquests, why India
should not support a far larger population in a
higher state of comfort and civilisation, and why
commerce should not expand until the exports and
imports between England and India double, and
even quadruple, their present amount. I felt it a
privilege to co-operate in such a work, and to assist
in laying even one stone in the building of so goodly
an edifice.
My special task was to meet the imminent finan-
cial difficulties which threatened to arrest this noble
career of future progress at the very outset.
I cannot venture to say that this task is entirely
accomplished, for even English budgets often show
unexpected results, and where a deficit of X 6,000,000
had to be met in a single year, with a revenue de-
pending on such precarious sources as opium, and a
system of accounts and estimates scarcely inaugu-
rated, some margin of uncertainty is unavoidable.
But I feel every confidence that the large,
though cautious and Conservative reductions,
ordered by Lord Canning's Government before I
left India will be carried fully into effect. lam
aware of nothing, except the fall in opium, to affect
seriously the accuracy of my estimates ; and, not-
withstanding that fall, I see nothing to shake my
faith in the general position, that with continued
economy the financial crisis may be considered as
surmounted, and the current expenditure of India,
apart from railways, brought to a level with its
current income. ithout, therefore, indulging in
premature exultation, there is every motive for
hopeful exertion in realizing the financial pro-
gramme of April last, the great object of which is
to establish a bona fide equilibrium without a con-
stant resort to loans and new taxes, so as to give.
India a period of repose and tranquillity during
which to work out her various social and political
reforms, unimpeded by the urgent fear of pecuniary
difficulties.

Although I may be precluded from taking a
part in these ulterior measures, I am happy to say
that my health is so far restored as to enable me to
contemplate returning to India, at any rate for the
next cold season, so as to endeavour to realize the
results promised in my budget. I hope then to
thank you in person for the kind expression of your
sympathy, and in the meantime I will only say
that it is doubly valuable to me because it proceeds
from bodies representing some of the most influen-
tial interests of Bengal, native as well as European.
lam convinced that India is no exception to the
general rule that it is desirable to encourage the
free expression of public opinion respecting public
men and measures through respectable and recog-
nized organs, and that such an expression has, under
the peculiar circumstances of India, a double value,
when the different classes of her Majesty's subjects,
without distinction of race or religion, co-operate in
a common object.
In the present instance I gladly accept your ad-
dress, both as a token of kindness and sympathy
towards myself personally, and, what is more im-
portant, as a proof that, notwithstanding the dif-
ferences which from time to time inevitably prevail
respecting the policy of a Government, there is a
general disposition among the enlightened classes
of India to do justice to the honest efforts of that
Government for the general good.
I remain, dear sir, yours faithfully,
W. S. LAING.
Fitzwilliam, Es Chairman
Bengal Chamber o q.,
f Commerce
the