The Sun.
London, England, 1868-07-28 00:00:00

Emu OP TEE PUBLIC 3OVRNALS,

The Times takes the thin attendance in the House
;Hiring the discussion of the Indian Budget as a sign of
the prosperity of our Eastern Empire. A commercial or
political crisis would bring something which might be
:ailed by compliment a crowd to listen to the Minister's
statement. Speaking of the item of £3,092,000
an account of " Public Works Extraordinary," our con-
temporary says the single question, of India finance
arising at present is, How shall this expenditure on
public works be met ? It is acknowledged that the outlay
is incurred in respect of remunerative works which press for
completion. A Government which acts the part of alandlord
in a country like India, where colossal works which cannot be
undertaken by private energy are required, must be pre-
pared every year to lay out a considerable portion of the
rental it receives in the improvement of the land whence
it derives its revenue ; but it seems established that there
is at this juncture occasion for charging what may be
called the inheritance with a portion of the cost of the
exceptional undertakings required. Would it not be as
well to adopt Mr. Laing's pol_sy, and raise a loan?
A sitting of the House of Commons devoted to finan-
cial statements is seldom, according to the Daily News,
except when Mr. Gladstone speaks, very fertile in debates
of thrilling interest. This is the case even when the
English Budget, which touches everybody's pocket, is
under discussion, and of course only the most simple.
minded or sanguine of men could expect that the fiscal
interests of India would avail to keep together a very
attentive House at this period of heat and exhaustion.
The fact was, that the instant the questions on the
paper had been exhausted, the legislative energies
of members appeared to be exhausted also, and the
debate on the India revenue accounts, or the Indian
Budget, as it is usually but incorrectly called, took place
in a house of some twenty or thirty Anglo-Indians, official
and ex-official. It must, however, be admitted that the
statement which Sir Stafford Northcote last night sub-
mitted to Parliament was not `,3f si kind from which any
debate of a practical character could possibly arise. An
Indian Budget, indeed, is so much a matter of estimate
and conjecture, even as regards the past, that its elements
merely flit before the critical eye, and elude the grasp
of the moat vigilant financial reformer. By
taking the averages of the accounts of a con-
siderable number of years we are enabled, it is
true, to arrive at the conclusion that the financial positi on
of India has steadily improved and become consolidated;
but so far as each particular financial year is dealt with in
the Secretary of State's Budget the case is different ; nor
was Sir Stafford Northcote in any degree an exception to
the usual ill-success of Indian Secretaries in his attempt
to convey to the House a clear notion of the intricacies
and uncertainties of Indian finance. Our contemporary
condemns the custom to include in the ordinary accounts
of revenue and expenditure extraordinary outlay upon
public works of a permanent and reproductive kind, which
should properly be reckoned as a charge upon capital.
With regard to public works, a rule has been laid down by
the Secretary of State, in a recent despatch to the Govern-
ment of India, which seems in every respect a sound and
wholesome one. " Extraordinary " charges are for the
future to be made only for public works, either of a repro-
ductive kind like irrigation canals, or " special fund
works," which are undertaken for an immediately
valuable object by some local municipality. This
rule, it may be hoped, will at once encourage
a fair expenditure on public works, and repress'
effectually the disposition of Indian officials to shift
ordinary expenses on every occasion to the extraor-
dinary balance-sheet, and so to nibble away at the capital
of the country for charges that should fall on income. If
this rule were observed and extended, much of that hazy
uncertainty which always enshrouds Indian finance would
be dispelled, and future debates upon the Indian Budget
would be less wearisome, less wandering, and far more
business-like than that unprofitable conflict of crotchets
and groping after light of which last night's discussion was
a somewhat dreary example.
The Standard strongly condemns the motion Mr.
Bouverie had threatened, on the discussion of the Budget,
to deprive the Indian Council of its financial control. If
the control of the expenditure of India is not to be vested
in the Council, it must be assumed by the House of Com-
mons ; and it would have been utterly ludicrous to pro-
pose such a transfer to the empty benches which conclu-
sively demonstrated the House's conviction of its own
incompetence to such a duty. Mr. Bouverie is not easily
shamed into reason or moderation ; but surely, after what
he has now seen, he will not again pretend to believe that
the finances of India would be better administered if the
duty of checking and revising expenditure, now assigned
to fifteen men who know India thoroughly, were transferred
to some fifteen other gentlemen, self-appointed to the
ofF.c., who know little or nothing about it. It considers
Mr. Laing was justified in his remark that the Ministerial
statement presented the financial condition of India in a
less favourable light than was absolutely necessary. She
is raying out of revenue for all ordinaries and extra-
ordinaries, except the remunerative improvement ( f her
estate ; and this is as much as England herself has
ever done. This result is no doubt owing in pa; t
to the strict watchfulness exercised by such Altesmen
as Sir Stafford Northeote at home an .l Mr.
Massey in India ; a! d it affords n reason col
omitting or disregarding any of Vie financial precautions
recommended by the former. But it certainly skews that
there is no ground for uneasiness or apprehension ; that
the time of chronic deficits and yearly additions to the
debt is over, and that the Budget of India is likely, at no
distant period, to exhibit a constantly increasing surplus
of revenue over all expenditure, except that expenditure
on paying improvements which itself tends to increase and
not to burden the revenue, and which adds to the comfort
and well-being of the people far more than proportionately
to its effect on the income of the State.

The Post devotes a leader in the memory of Lord Cram
worth. It remarks that the career of a lawyer more dis-
tinguished for uniform good fortune than for any brilliant
ability is not very interesting in itself or valuable to others
as nn example. If Lord Cranworth is destined only to
have a place amongst second-class statesmen and second-
class judges, the many virtues which graced his character,
his kindness, his impartiality, his moderation, and, above
all, his love of justice, will cause his memory to be loved
and respected by all those who hold the opinion that
private wortlA adds dignity and lustre to the highest public
(nee. Lord Cranworth was never greedy of patronage,
and on th.. occasion of the establishment of the Divorce
Court, handed over the whole patronage, amounting to
more tl.an thirty thousand a year, to the first judge
appointed—tl:e late Sir Cresswell Cresswell. The
decisions of Lord Cranw(irl were always regarded with
respect.

The Daily News, eulogising the homely qualities of Lord
Cranworth, and recognising the fitness of Lord Romilly's
expression of the dece:,scd baron's " candour, fairness,
and common sense," remarks that his death does not
remove a conspicuous figura from public life, or create a
gap which it will be difficult to fill. He slides from his
place, and as the ranks close he will scarcely be missed
from them. But of the men who have lately departed
from us there are few who have carried with them the
more complete and unqualified regard and respect of the
profession to which he belonged, and of his political asso-
ciates and opponents, and the more cordial affection of his
private friends.

The Standard pronounces the life just closed well worth
the living. Less prominent as a politician, less eloquent
as an orator than his contemporaries Brougham, Lyndhurst,
and Pollcck ; less eminent as a lawyer than Lord St.
Leonards ; less attractive as an advocate than Lord
Chelmsford, the nobleman whose loss we have now to
regret will, nevertheless, hold no mean or subordinate
place in the legal history of the present century. He
belonged to the class of counsel who are more in favour
with the bench, and more in repute with the bar, than
with the outside public ; to whom the most learned legal
discourses are frequently but as caviare to the general, and
on whom a good rattling speech at Nisi Prius makes more
impression than any amount of argument which only a
professional audience can appreciate.

A Sim. BLOWN Ur AND SUNK.—On Saturday
the brig Julia, of Seaham, Captain Robinson, with coals,
while on her way from Llanelly to Dieppe, and when about
twenty miles off St. Ives blew up, and sank twenty
minutes after the explosion. Two of the crew, named
John Hancock and William Hook, were badly burnt about
the face and hands. The crew, six in number, took to the
boat, and were picked up by the brig Ibis, of Harwick,
Captain Palmer, and when about eight miles off Newquay
they took to their boat, and rowed for the latter place,
where they arrived about nine p.m.—Western Morning
.IVelrs.

DAraso ESCAPE FROM PmsoN.—An extraor-
dinary escape Las just been made from the prison of Lille.
The prisoners were exercising in the yard, and the time
Ix their return to their cells having arrived the gaoler
went to open the door of the passage to let them in. The
distance was n ,t more ti an wo metres, but the time suf-
ficed for twu brJ hers, niim d Delanm y, confined fur smug-
gling, to mount the roof of an adjoining outhous and thence
spring to the top of the inner wall. There the warder
saw them, but, as he could not leave his post, he inereiy
gave an a'arm. The two nen, however, jumped to the
oater wall, two metres from the former —leaving a vacant
space all round the building—and descended into the
street, a depth of twenty feet, at about forty yards from
the sentinel. The governor, on being informed of the
incident, immediately gave chase with some of his men,
but the fugitives got off, and have not since been heard of.
The whole affair was managed with a rapi.'ity which
denotes a marvellous agility in the ma:eract;as.