The Sun.
London, England, 1859-03-14 00:00:00


•
(From the Derbyshire Courier.)
" The finance of a country," said Mr. Bright, in
the important debate of Monday night, on the
Indian Loan, " is almost everything of a country ;
for it means public order, it means the industry of

he people, it refers to the economy or extravagance,
to the goodness or evil of the Government." The
financial state of British India is, according to Mr.
Bright, as bad as possible. We have there " a con-
stantly increasing debt, a constantly increasing ex-
penditure, and a constantly diminishing revenue."
The National Debt of British India, Mr, Wilson
tells us, must become £90,000,000 before peace is
fully established. It would. be impossible for Mr.
Bright to make a speech without a little abuse of
his country and his own countrymen. " The native
princes," says Mr. Bright, " somehow or other
managed financial matters better than we do, They
always contrived to keep up their revenue, and had
a pretty little surplus of a few lacs of rupees in
the Treasury." The liberal and patriotic member
for Birmingham has never heard, or having heard
has remembered to forget, the brutal system of
exaction, torture, and plunder by which the cruel
and degraded sensualists who tyrannised over the
various principalities of India, wrung from the
wretched natives the utmost possible amount of
taxes. These monsters of oppression, Mr. Bright
reminds us, " had generally a surplus." The Eng-
lish Government, which has, of late years at least,
been constantly moving in the direction of justice,
moderation, and improvement, is sneered at by Mr.
Bright for not taking better care of its money.
Now, we agree with Mr. Bright that the finance
of a country is " almost everything " for that
country's welfare. We also agree with him that
the financial state of India is such as to deserve
the most serious consideration of our rulers. But
having found fault with everybody and everything
English, having shown us all the worst side of
India's present state, what remedy does Mr. Bright
himself propound? Absolutely nothing worthy of
a moment's consideration. He thinks the salaries of
the civil officers of the Government in India may
be reduced, though Lord Stanley completely re.
futed his assertion that they were at all overpaid.
This is about equivalent to advising a great cotton-
spinner, in a monetary crisis, when his mills and
500 pair of hands are working at a loss, to reduce
the salary of Adolphus, his wife's page, a shilling
a week, and put his cook upon board wages. Mr.
Bright thinks, as most other people think, that the
military service in India has cost a good deal. He
can tell us of no help for that. He thinks that rail-
ways, and irrigation, and improved roads do not go
on so fast as could be wished. We all agree about
that also. A mutiny is not exactly the best time
for the material progress of a nation. And for all
these projects money is the first, money is the
second, and money is the third thing necessary.
Not one practical suggestion, however, does Mr.
Bright make for the improvement of the financial
position of India. Having blamed everybody, and
made everything as bad as possible, holding out no
present encouragement and no hope of future im-
provement, the honourable and impracticable mem-
ber for Birmingham sat down satisfied with the
delivery of his customary anti-British growl.
Sir G. C. Lewis was as feeble and futile as usual
in his attempt to propound any remedy. He thought,
however, that the British Government should pay
for the extra forces engaged in the suppression of
the mutiny. Not a very pleasant prospect this for
English tax-payers, under the existing circum-
stances of the country. Lord Stanley affirmed that
though the Home Government could not be held
liable for the Indian debt, yet the Indian creditors
have the first charge on the Indian revenve.
We can see to what all this tends. The mutiny
has cost an immense sum. The finances of India
are in a most unsatisfactory state. We want money
for India immediately, and all our hope of future
improvement is dependent on the development of
the undoubtedly great resources of the county, for
which development more money is required. Unless,
therefore, we can rapidly improve the condition of
India, we must, in some shape or other, find money
in England to pay for the Government of India.
We unhesitatingly affirm that much might, in
skilful hands, be done for the rapid and extensive
commercial and material improvement of the British
Empire in India. The finances of the country re-
' quire raising. Money is immediately necessary.
We beg to refer our readers to an article which
appeared in the City Intelligence of the Times, of
November 6, 1857. The writer suggests the inquiry
" whether a country which for a long time has been
absorbing silver at the rate of six millions per an-
num cannot be made to provide in some degree for
the cost of its disturbances." After proposing that
the natives of India should receive their dividends
and other claims, in "an interest-bearing,:but tempo-
rarily inconvertible paper," this writer proceeds to
say,—" We have supplied men and munitions, and
India is rich enough to find money. There is no
reason to assume that the issue of a note circulation
even on a large scale—supposing it requisite as a
last resource, a circumstance far from certain—
would be attended with difficulty. The natives
would be found sufficiently keen to estimate the value
of a Government note, carrying 6 or 7 per cent. in-
terest, and receivable at par in the course of six or
twelve months for revenues due, and at the same
time we should have the satisfaction of know-
ing that every one with paper of this description
in his pocket would feel an access of loyalty and a
proportionate desire for the maintenance of order."
Does the Times come forward now to suggest any
such plan for meeting our great and increasing
financial difficulties in India? No. And why not?
Because this proposal was made during the panic,
under a feeling of anxiety to bolster up the Bank
Charter Act, and the broken-down monetary system
of Peel, and that crisis having been got over, the
Times has returned to its self-condemned, and con-
temptible currency crotchets, and would now, pro-
bably, repudiate the notion of Exchequer notes for
India such•as it then proposed.
We need not say that we go much further than the
Times. We wish to see the national notes issued by the
British Government in India inconvertible, except
at the market price of silver, made a legal tender,
and receivable for all taxes. these notes might,
for convenience, be made of very small amounts.
We see see no reason why they should not be issued
for a rupee. The good effects of such a measure
would, as it appears to us, be these. It would tend
to diminish the hoarding of silver. It would provide
a domestic circulation for India, and diminish the
drain of silver from Europe. It would, as the Times'
writer observes, increase the loyalty of the native
population by making it their interest to assist in
preserving order. And as certainly as the issue of
paper money by William Pitt enabled that minister
toan
1d theilrataxes
in England, without detriment to the work-
ing
to raise taxes in India. As in England from 1797
to 85e classes,wt
Nothing theresources
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appbl
iaerne
as rapidlyt wouldhs
and surprisingly developed under such a system,
react on that of the mother country.
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stands
il i facility
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uwayunprecedented
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e Indian
d amount
Government of
but the absurd currency theories of Peel and Over-
stone, which the English people, in sheer ignorance
of monetary science, have adopted, and which have
in 1847 and 1857, ignominiously and ridiculously
failed when put to the trial.
We care nothing about our own opinion. We
speak for the good of the millions in India, and our
own countrymen at home. Reject our proposition.
Take that of the Times. Issue interest bearing
Exchequer bills, receivable for taxes, for the pro-
motion of public works in India, and the payment
of dividends. If the system work well, extend it.
If it fail, discontinue it.
We commend this to the consideration of Lord
Stanley, who ought to emancipate himself from
the bondage of financial red tape. And we tell
Mr. Bright that if he desire to be an honest poli-
tician, and to do real good to the working classes
of his fellow-countrymen, he must not only say
that " the finance of a country is almost everything
of a country," but acting on that conviction he
must study the currency question—the great ques-
tion of the working men throughout the civilised
world.
ie I T

MARRIAGE 'EARS.---itecently ac a, marriage in
Leeds, after the ceremony, the bride burst into tears:
whereupon the bridegroom, a stout six-foot fellow, follow-
ing the example, blubbered like a calf, and on being remon-
strated with, roared out, " Let me alone I I feel as Dad
about it as she dm,"