The Sun.
London, England, 1842-11-08 00:00:00

GENERAL or INDIA.

FINANCIAL DEPARTMENT.
AuG. 7.
The Governor-General has much pleasure in offer-
ing to the Members of the Committee of Finance,
appointed on the 23d of June, his grateful acknow-
ledgments of the zeal, the industry, and the ability
they hare manifested in the preparation of their first
Report.
In transmitting the Report to the Court of Direc-
tors, the Governor-General has not failed to call their,
attention to the merits of the officers from whom it
has proceeded.
The Governor-General remarks, that the contingent
charges of Bengal and the North-western Provinces
for 1840-41, as found by the Committee, after ex-
cluding all expenditure and advances on account of
the wars in Affghanistan and China, still exceed the
corresponding charges for 1830-31 by Company's Its.
40,27,718-0-o—a sum which the Committee justly
observe leaves ample ground for inquiry and report.
The Governor-General concurs in the observation
of the Committee, that " contingent disbursements
are of all others those which most elude general rules
or fixed principles. Their amount is ever varying
with the necessities of the moment, the temper of the
disbursing, or the activity of the controlling, officer.
The first cause may not admit of regulation, but the
two latter are open to influence and to correction."
The Governor-General accedes to the recommend;i-

tion of the Committee, that a circular letter be ad-
dressed to each disbursing and controlling officer,
pointing out the importance of extreme attention to
this subject, and enjoining the observance of scrupu-
lous care in the admission of each item, and his Lord-
ship directs that this letter shall be so circulated, par-
ticipating in the hope expressed by the Committee,
that the exertion of each person, though in itself yield-
ing a small result, will, combined with that of others,
produce an aggregate of some importance in its bear-
ing on the public expenditure.
The Governor-General earnestly requests the se-
veral officers entrusted with the expenditure and con-
trol of the public money to consider that a sum saved
by real economy is of more value to the State than
the same sum added to the revenue ; for the object of
a good Government is to extend the largest amount of
benefit at the smallest cost to the people.
The Governor-General desires to see all the ser-
vants of the State in the enjoyment of emoluments
suited to their stations, and sufficient to maintain
them in those stations with respectability and comfort.
His Lordship further earnestly desires to see those
who by their superior zeal and exertions may justly
raise themselves to the more eminent stations in the
public service, possess such higher emoluments as
may not only conduce to their own prosperity in life,
but be a perpetual excitement to others to distinguish
themselves by similar merits.
But his Lordship must express his conviction that
in no country, and least of all in India, can the means
of effecting these salutary objects be placed within the
reach of Government unless, by the general co-opera-
tion of those entrusted with the disbursement and
control of the public money, rigid but well considered
economy be introduced into all departments.
The Governor- General will deem it to be amongst
his most satisfactory duties to mark by promotion
those who, otherwise fit for the public offices to which
they aspire, may have distinguished ;themselves by
their judicious vigilance over the expenditure under
their control ; and his Lordship will not fail to mark
by substantial proofs of his displeasure all who may
evince a disregard of public economy.
(Signed) ELLENBOROUGH.

FROM THE COMMITTEE OF FINANCE FOR THE PRESI
DENCT OF BENGAL TO THE RIGHT HON. LORD ELLEN
BOROUGH, GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF INDIA, &C.
Allahabad, Aug. 6, 1842.
My Lord—ln entering on the investigation en
trusted to us by your Lordship's resolution of the 23d
of June last, we endeavoured to lay down some sys-
tematic plan on which our operations should tie con-
ducted.
2. We proposed to break down the totals contained
in the first paragraph of the resolution, in order that
we might discover in what branches of the administra-
tion, or to what extent in each branch, an increase had
taken place in the period under review. Then, by
retrenching what was superfluous in each, we hoped
to be able either to reduce the whole to the same
amount as at the commencement of the period, or
satisfactorily to explain where, and on what account,
the reduction was impracticable.
3. 'We have, however, experienced great difficulty
in the first step of this operation. The statement is
based on a comparison of the civil auditors' books in
the early years. But the arrangement of these books
in the early part of the period is very different from
what it is in the latter. A great change has interme-
diately taken place in the organisation of the Govern-
ment ; Bengal and the North-western Provinces have
been separated from each other in all matters of local
Government.
4. The accounts as well as the administration have
been divided ; and, though a general uniformity of
system and arrangement has been maintained, yet the
divergence is sufficient to require great labour and
care, if anything approaching to an accurate compa-
rison is to be instituted.
5. This circumstance, added to our separation at
this station from the trained establishments and volu-
minous records of the offices of audit and account,
both at Agra and Calcutta, have baffled our attempts
to follow the course which vi e would have most ap-
proved.
6. If, therefore, we hoped to accomplish anything
during the brief period of your Lordship's stay in this
part of the country, and consequently of our remain-
ing united, it was evident that we must adopt some
other plan which, though less complete and certain,
was yet calculated to produce results in themselves
valuable, and would enable us to turn to best account
the means of local information here available, and at
the same time so dispose our work that it might be
prosecuted by separate parties when we ceased to co-
operate on the same spot.
7. The disbursements of the political department we
are separating from those of the general, in which
they are now merged. These, as being connected
with the Supreme Government of British India, and
coming more immediately under your Lordship's eye,
will form the subject of a separate report.
8. 'We have also taken the civil auditor's books of
1840-41 for the North-western Provinces, and entered
upon an examination of the items of civil expenditure
which they contain.
9. For purpose of comparison it was necessary to
assume a date, so far back as to be prior to the great
organic changes in the Government, occasioned by the
Charter of 1833, because we could not otherwise
rightly appreciate the effect of those changes. We,
therefore, took the books of 1830-31, and endeavoured
to select from them the corresponding items to those
in the books of 1840-41, for the North-western Pro-
vinces, so far as the two could be brought to corres-
pond. The comparison will sometimes be only of
totals, and will sometimes extend to details, accord-
ing as the changes may be greater or smaller.
10. At the conclusion we hope to bring the totals
together so as to agree with the entries in the resolu-
tion, and furnish the full report which is expected at
our hands.
11. We have thus already completed a report on
the civil salaries, in the judicial, revenue, and customs
department.
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14. We were first compelled to call upon all public
officers for the originals or copies of their contingent
bills for a few years. The three last were those we
selected. But the civil auditor's books, which are the
basis of the entries under this head in paragraph 5 of
the resolution, give only the average monthly dis-
bursements of each office, and we have found it im-
possible to reconcile the averages with the bills them-
selves, from want of information of the precise grounds
on which the averages are struck, and from the labour
which would necessarily attend the verification of all
the items, when the process of their reduction is
known. The reconciliation might, no doubt, be
effected in time, but the object does not seem worth
the trouble it would occasion.
15. We have considered it more expedient to retain
the civil auditor's totals, merely for the purposes of
comparison, and to proceed to an examination of the
bills themselves, without attempting to reconcile them
with the civil auditor's returns. We hope from this
examination to attain a fresh total not far differing
from that of the civil auditor. The several parts of
this new total will be thoroughly analysed, so as
to show what items admit of reduction, and what
do not, and how the corresponding charges in diffe-
rent parts of the country, under similar circumstances,
stand. We may hence be able to deduce rules and
and principles which may assist in keeping this branch
of the public expenditure within moderate bounds.
Our inquiry may then enable tus to estimate the fu-
ture average monthly disbursement; and the contrast
of this with the averages formerly obtained from the
civil auditor's books, will afford a test of the success
of the operation.ro':-r
16. With this view NN 'e present the result in an ap-
pended table. It will he hence seen that two very
large items, amounting together to 31,27,250, axe due