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    298 The Leader and Saiurdaxj Analyst, L^...

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    INDIA—FINANCE TAXATION. C OMMON sense, t...

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    Our Beav15 Defendf/Lls. Fllhere Is A Nov...

    them , after great suffering , to a pauper ' s grave ? Is it surprisin ° v that they should believe that the Government of India desired-their deaths ? Of course'the public will not accept that conclusion of theirs ; but it must believe that the Government of India did desire to inflict a paltry vengeance on the poor fellows , and carelessly handed them over to what it must have known would prove pestilence . . If , however , the tragedy of the Great Tasmania is in some respects novel , the farce which immediately followed it is a close copy of the orthodox pattern . The coroner's jury finds that d tt the

    the provisions were unfit for human food , an ha officers who signed the General Inspection report were the culpable parties ; but what . will these worthies care for such a finding ? There will be a long correspondence between the Council for India and the G overnment of Bengal , which will be terminated some t wo or three years hence by a declaration from the Secretary of State that the officers in question ai-e injured innocents , ' and that the soldiers merely suffered the penalties , of their own folly . There is a complete immunity from all such crimes if the Government is trusted with the punishment of the criminals . One board will protect another ;

    one office veil the offences of another department . They all row in the same boat , are all alike nests of jobbery , incapacity , and impertinence , ' and they all join together to burke everything like public inquiry . It would have been well if the Liverpool jury had returned a verdict of manslaughter against , the pincers , of whose culpability it felt no doubt . SSuiely such a verdict would have been quite as legal as those given against negligent pointsmen and porters . But as juries are not likely to

    act in that tlecisive manner , the question becomes one for the people of England . Are they content to go on any longer making hypocritical professions of gratitude to : their brave defenders , ' all the while allowing those brave defenders , their wives and children , to be slaughtered like the freight of a Cuban slaver or a Coolie immigrant ship .- ?¦ it is all very ' . well to denounce the military authorities , but the nation is equally culpable ; its servants would not be guilty of the negligeiice which cries a loud for vengeance , if they did not feel perfectly assured of its apathy .

    298 The Leader And Saiurdaxj Analyst, L^...

    298 The Leader and Saiurdaxj Analyst , L ^ ARCH 31 , 1860 .

    India—Finance Taxation. C Ommon Sense, T...

    INDIA—FINANCE TAXATION . C OMMON sense , truth , and honesty have begun to manifest themselves in the management of the government of India , and have at once excited almost general reverence . That the finance accounts of that great empire have long been mystified ; that its expenditure hasj as the ruky exceeded its revenue ; that the country is extremely populous and extremely fertile j that the people are ingenious * docile , and submissive ; that trade is rapidly increasing— since 1854 out trade with India has augmented upwards of" 70 per cent . ; that the multitude are comparatively prosperous , and unharmed , by that mutiny which struck only the ruling , caste ^ ; that India has before it , as every other country has , old or new , if rulers be sagacious and people enlightened , a

    career of unbounded prosperity , are facts well known , or inferences readily suggested . Mr . Wilson , however , is tlu ; first member of the Government there who has had the honesty ' and the good sense , to proclaim them . He has done this with much industry and earnestness , and is regarded iis having achieved wonders . He has acquired by the work a world-wide approbation . It is delightful to see such qualities enthroned , and equally delightful to see the least gleam of them so instantly and thoroughly appreciated . From India , heretofore , has come to us love for Asiatic tyranny , with a ctesire to exercise it , mid our hopes for the future of our country , and of society at large , are only increased by the complete change we may hereafter expect in its moral exports .

    We have had numerous telegrams conveying imperfect accounts of the mode in which Mr . Wilson proposes to deal with its finances . They have tempted some of our contemporaries into errors , but not . us ; wo have now his great oration , delivered on the 18 th ult ., in the Council-chamber at Calcutta , densely crowded to hear from him the future fate of India , and wo enn speak with some certainty and in some detail of his labours . An unexpectedly great deficiency in the revenue was the first

    unpalatable truth laid before the Council and the assembled bankers and merchants . Tn September ah nccownt wns sent home , which showed a deficit ; , including homo charges , of about £ 6 , 000 , 000 in the revenue , as against the expenditure in the year 1859-60 , In faot , however , the deficit was £ 9 , 290 , 139 . A mistake had been made at Bombay , in the -military expenditure , of £ 600 , 000 ; at Madras , in the commissariat , of £ 800 , 000 ; there was a mistake of # 750 , 000 hvthe rovonue oxpeoted , The railway account was wrong £ 883 , 000 ; the public works aepnitn

    ment and the home charges showed each an unexpected increase , and the errors amounted to millions . He was too practised artofficial to blame individuals for these mistakes , he blamed the discreditable system . Madras and Bombay each pursues a course of its own ; and , though neither has suffered severely from the mutiny , they shirk its burdens , and seek sectional or individual advantages . Extravagance , Mr . Wilson showed , has always been the rule

    in India . Even without war and mutiny , the Government of the Company , like most of the Governments of Europe , generally expended more than its revenue . Of the twenty-six years which have elapsed since it ceased to be a trading , and became merely a governing body , only seven show a revenue equal to the expenditure ; nineteen show a deficiency . The debt prior to the mutiny was nearly £ 60 , 000 , 000 ; ' that sad event augmented it—or will on the whole augment it , for all its cost is not yet defrayedby nearly £ 40 , 000 , 000 ; and now , with taxes yielding only £ 9 , 027 , 973 , the interest of the debt absorbs £ 4 , 461 , 029

    annually . : There is not room for much economy , however desirable . Improvement in arrangements may be made ; but the civil expenditure cannot be reduced . The army may be more advantageously distributed , the commissariat expenditure may be diminished , the native army may be reduced ; a force like the Irish constabulary may assist in the civil government ; but , whatever be Mr . Wilson ' s inclination , he has no power to reduce a single soldier , or substitute one kind of force for another . We did not need his remarks to inform us that the Saturday

    Review , and other journals , which last week severely condemned , or eulogised , as their leanings were favourable or otherwise to a native army , " Mr . Wilson ' s policy , " were at once ignorant and mistaken . They wrote as if he who has merely to find the funds were the Viceroy and the Secretary of State for' -India ; and the Parliament , all rolled into one , and responsible for the entire government of India . Contrary to their statements , lie avows his inability , whatever may be , his wish , to diminish the expenditure , and anticipates , though he is careful to avoid a precise estimate—the data are so uncertain—a deficiency of revenue , evert with much new taxation in 1860-61 , of £ 6 , 500 , 000 . Notwithstanding , this present and prospective deficiency , Mr . Wilson does not propose a new loan , and protests strongly against increasing debt . He insists equally strongly on the necessity of the finance minister possessing the supreme control ' over all the financial departments , and corresponding responsibility in all local governments and functionaries . We can hardly reconcile his boast , of having cash balances in his hands to the amount of £ 19 , 000 , 000—greater than for . many yisars—with the extent of the avowed deficiency ; for no government can be authorized to borrow , as the Indian Government lately borrowed , in order to place money in the hands of its bankers . It is satisfactory , however , to find the Government strong in funds , in spite of the deficiency , as-it will be better enabled to carry into effect Mr : Wilson ' s plan for increasing the taxes , and redeeming the Government from what would in a private man be habitual insolvency . , , .. ( His plan involves , like Mr . Gladstone ' s budget , and like the budgets of most modern finance ministers , greater changes than improvements , both in direct and indirect taxation . He is to impose an income tax of 2 per cent , on all incomes between £ 20 and £ 50 , and of 4 per cent , on all incomes above £ 50 .. From this impost levied by schedules like our income tax , there are to bo no coemptions . The cavalry soldier a , s Veil as the general . officer and the civil servant must submit to he mulcted . There must be a misunderstanding of the intention here , or an error in India .. In the hands of the military is the roiil power of the State , and it is most undesirable to risk a second mutiny by affronting the soldiers , and most dangerous if it be of European troops . We presume if this tax be permanent , 'it will be extended from our ancient territories to those wo have recently acquired , and those merely in alliance now , but which aro destined to bo Incorporated in our empire . At present , we are uninformed as to the extent of the area to which the tax will be applied , and the amount it is expected annually to yield . Mr . Wilson does-not profess to estimate it , and ns yet no person can . Besides a tax on incomes , he is to levy a license duty of 2 s . a yenr on nvtisnns j 8 s . a year on retail traders , mid 20 s . a year on wholesale traders mid nil professional men . This-ia to be u permanent iinpoat ? and the license is to bp renewed , yearly . It is justified 08 ¦ supplying , like Mr . Gladstone ' s penny tnx

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), March 31, 1860, page 6, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_31031860/page/6/