reduce that portion of expenditure. Ifthey | year when hon. Members, wearied with could not largely reduce expenditure, on six months of laborious idleness, and the other hand, by a judicious revision from time to time of their tariff, and by a cautious system of Public Works expenditure, they might, he believed, largely increase the productive power, and, consequently, the capacity of India to bear taxation. If they could succeed in so developing the resources and the latent wealth of India, and in so improving her moral and material condition as to annually enable her to bear with greater ease the cost of the Government from whom she had derived such benefits, they would have achieved a two-fold feat more tending to their credit as a nation than the long series of victories and successes which had made them masters of the Indian Empire. The noble Lord concluded by moving the formal Budget Resolution.

Motion made, and Question proposed, "That it appears by the Accounts laid before the year ending the 31st day of March 1874 was £49,598,253; the charges in India, including the collection of the Revenue, Interest on Debt, and Public Works ordinary, were £42,094,995; the charges in England (including £1,156,535, the value of Stores supplied to India) were £7,873,574; the Guaranteed Interest on the Capital of Railway and other Companies in India and in England, deducting net Traffic Receipts, was £1,437,352, making a total charge for the same year of £51,405,921; and there was an excess of Expenditure over Income in that year amounting to £1,807,668; that the charge for Public Works extraordinary was £3,553,307, and that, including that charge, the excess of Expenditure over Income was £5,360,975." (Lord George Hamilton.)

this House that the total Revenue of India for

MR. SMOLLETT, in rising to move to add at the end of the Question,

"and, in the opinion of the Committee, the statement of the Indian Finance now submitted is unsatisfactory, because the policy of the Government of India is based upon the principle of borrowing large sums of money in each year, without reference to the income of the Country, in order to carry on, through Government agency, undertakings of a speculative character, and classed as extraordinary,' many of which, especially works of irrigation, past experience has proved to be unremunerative,"

said, he was not one of those who thought that any great mischief was perpetrated because the Financial Accounts of our great Indian Empire were not laid upon the Table of the House at at early period of the Session. It was said that those Accounts were only produced and discussed at a time of the Lord George Hamilton

jaded with constant wrangling, were little inclined to take into serious consideration any topic of grave importance. Secretaries of State had promised reform in that matter, but it never came; and, for his part, he thought it mattered little whether it came or not, because if the Accounts were laid before them in February, at the same time as the Speech from the Throne, and discussed in March, the same apathy, indifference and neglect would be exhibited as were shown in the month of August. The reason was obvious. At the last General Election in 1874, there were returned to the House only six Gentlemen who, by long residence in India, had acquired any knowledge whatever of the country or the wants of its inhabitants, and the number of those Gentlement. It was not so in former times. men was diminishing in every ParliaIn bygone days, under the double GoVernment, before the destruction of the old Court of Directors, men of eminence in the civil and military services, gentlemen who had made fortunes in commerce, or men who had attained to eminence at the Indian Bar, sought eagerly admittance to the House of Commons, and frequently obtained admittance; for a seat in Parliament in those days was reckoned a stepping-stone to the attainment of a seat in the Court of Directors-a haven of bliss to old Indians. Gentlemen in Parliament, and possessed of seats in the Court of Directors, were well posted up in Indian affairs, and if any job, political or financial, was in contemplation, they had ample opportunity of dealing with and exposing it. Now, men who returned from India were placed in the Indian Council, and were not allowed to enter that House, which thus lost the benefit of their wisdom and experience, if they had any. The consequence was, that the Secretary of State was the only person who knew anything of the policy about to be pursued in India, and Secretaries of State for India very seldom took the House of Commons into their confidence, while debates raised by independent Gentlemen were generally as dull as ditch water. On the 3rd of August last year they discussed the financial affairs of India, and it was reported in the Resolution of the House that there was a surplus revenue of

£1,765,000. That, however, was a sham | recourse to, because Lord Northbrook surplus. There was a real deficit of needed a further sum of £9,000,000 £418,000, caused by expenditure on sterling, agreeably with the Resolution Public Works Extraordinary. The Bud- of July, 1873, for expenditure in that get of 1872 was not, however, a bad one, and in the following year. This expenbecause it was framed on the policy of diture was for extraordinary underLord Mayo- namely, that no public takings-works which he would show work should be constructed with bor- were unremunerative. As the Famine rowed cash. That policy he enforced of 1873-4 had been mentioned in constringently from 1869, and it proved to nection with Indian Finance, he would, be a great success, for in 1870 and 1871 with the permission of the Committee, Lord Mayo had the satisfaction of seeing venture to say a few words on that a surplus income amounting in the two subject. years to an aggregate sum of £1,810,000, and although there was a deficit of £418,000 in 1872, it was not met by borrowing money. The deficit of that year was paid out of the great cash balances which had accumulated under the Government of Lord Mayo, and which amounted to something like £19,000,000. The Budget of 1873, which was now before the Committee, was framed upon a totally different policy. In July of that year Lord Northbrook, with the concurrence of his Council, passed a resolution ordering the expenditure during the next five years of £22,000,000 sterling on Public Works Extraordinary. The outlay was required to be made at the rate of £4,500,000 a-year, and the money was to be spent without the slightest reference to the Ways and Means of the year. This resolution entirely set aside the prudent policy of Lord Mayo. Well, in 1873 there was a deficit of £5,360,000. Next year there was a deficit of £4,588,000, and in 1875 the estimated deficit was £3,794,000, the deficits of the three years amounting to £13,742,000. That he regarded as mischievous finance, although it was sanctioned by the Duke of Argyll and was apparently tolerated by the Marquess of Salisbury. In 1873 there was if they did not take the Famine Charge into account-a surplus of ordinary revenue amounting to £2,050,000. That sum was applicable strictly to the relief of the Famine, and as the charge under that head in 1873 was £3,880,000, the whole amount necessarily required for the exigencies of the Famine would have been met by the surplus of £2,050,000, together with £1,800,000 to be taken from the cash balances of £19,000,000. If this course had been adopted, India would have met all her legitimate requirements without borrowing money. But heavy loans were had

The Famine itself was the sole topic that occupied the minds of the people of England last year in connection with Indian affairs, and that was the only matter that had been shunted in both Houses of Parliament. His observations on the subject should be laudatory, because he liked to give credit where credit was due. In dealing with this great calamity, which threatened for a time to destroy the fertility of some of the finest provinces in Upper Bengal, Lord Northbrook had exhibited the true spirit of an English statesman, a spirit that had never before been displayed in our management of Indian affairs. In 1874, for the first time since Great Britain had become the paramount power in Hindostan, the entire resources of the Exchequer of that great country had been applied without limit and without stint-he wished he could say without undue profusion to the relief of suffering humanity. He was not going to refer in detail to the manner in which the Famine had been met, because he believed that some difference of opinion existed upon that point. He would not discuss those differences, because, in the end, every obstacle, every difficulty, every disaster seen, had been surmounted; and, moreover, he might say that everybody appeared to have co-operated most loyally with the Viceroy with the view of saving life. The whole credit of the way in which the Famine had been dealt with was, however, due to Lord Northbrook, who had never truckled to idle sentiment or to silly clamour, and had refused from the first to lay an embargo upon the export of cereals from Bengal, a course of proceeding which might have obtained for him some temporary popu larity, but which would have eventually landed him in considerable difficulties. If ultimate success was proof of absolute

wisdom, then Lord Northbrook's action | created, who idled their time in India was beyond criticism, as far as the means while drawing £1,000 per annum in that he adopted for stopping the Famine were country, merely to enable them to attain concerned. The very success, however, a rank which would give them £1,200 that had attended that action rendered a-year in this country. His strictures, it clear to him (Mr. Smollett) that the however, would chiefly apply to the extent of the Famine itself had been Public Works Department. He had somewhat exaggerated. Had the Famine been told by Members of the Indian been so severe as had been represented, Council that India would be perfectly many thousands of people must have able to meet all her requirements, proinevitably died of starvation, whereas vided some check could be put upon the the House was informed that only 22 wild extravagance and the waste of her persons had died from the effects of the Public Works Department. Barracks Famine out of a population of as many and other establishments had been millions. If the Famine had been as built everywhere, rivers were being severe as had been stated, such a result opened up, and works of irrigation were would have been, not a marvel, but a being constructed in the interior, and miracle, and he believed that the age of altogether the riot and extravagance in miracles was passed. The paucity of the Department were something awful. deaths officially reported; the absence He had obtained last year from reliable of all authoritative information of any sources a return of the total sum paid to great destruction of agricultural stock, the department of public works in India, and the fact that many hundred thou- from which it appeared that that total sands of the peasantry were fed from amounted to no less that £1,250,000 Government funds up to November, sterling per annum. Doubting the accu1874, all tended to show that profusion racy of these startling figures, he had was the order of the day in India. But asked the hon. and gallant Gentleman he did not blame Lord Northbrook for opposite (Sir George Balfour) to revise that profusion, inasmuch as the times them, and the result of the hon. and were not favourable in that year to eco- gallant Gentleman's revision was to innomy, and the pressure brought to bear crease the total to £1,500,000. Under on Lord Northbrook and his Council those circumstances, he thought that he probably rendered that profusion una- was justified in denouncing this Departvoidable. All honour, therefore, in his ment as a vile and bloated one. It had judgment, was due to the present Vice- increased, it was increasing, and it roy in this matter. His conduct through- ought to be diminished; it was under out this difficulty contrasted most fa- no control, it was master of the situavourably with official action in 1867. In tion, and it was a permanent estabthat year, a famine of great intensity lishment. It would be a great bane raged in Orissa, a Province immediately to the wealthiest country in the world, contiguous to the seat of Government in but to a poor country like India it was Calcutta. But the matter was neglected; an absolute curse, because it required an and in that year 1,000,000 of people, expenditure of some £10,000,000 a-year out of 5,000,000 of population, were upon public works as an excuse for its proved to have perished miserably existence. In his opinion, that estabthrough sheer neglect. In his judg-lishment ought to be reduced in numment, if the same respectable mediocrity had been in office in India in 1874, the mistakes, disasters, and horrors of 1867 would have been infallibly reproduced. Having said this much in praise of Lord Northbrook, he felt bound to state that, under that noble Lord's auspices, the finances of India were yearly getting into an awful muddle. There was immense and wasteful profusion in the Civil Service and in the Army. In the latter especially, promotion was given in the most extravagant manner, and legions of field officers were

Mr. Smollett

bers and in pay by at least one-half, otherwise India would never have a surplus. He protested against the way in which Indian Budgets were prepared

an

there being first an Ordinary Budget, out of which everything was kept that could be omitted; then there was Extraordinary Budget, in which everything was put that was omitted from the first; and then there was a Famine Budget besides. All Indian Budgets came before the Committee of that House three times-first as a Sketch Budget, next as a Regular Budget, and then, in the third

in this country and in India to carry on Public Works, and by the abstraction of £3,000,000 or £4,000,000 from the cash balances. It was the object of his Resolution to compel the Viceroy to keep within his income of £50,000,000. If we meant, as he presumed we did, to rule India for a couple of centuries or so, and if we desired to see a contented population, we must adopt a safe line of finance. On the 9th of June last year the noble Lord the Secretary of State for India, addressing an august Assembly over the way, praised to the skies the Public Works Department. He ad

year, as an Actual Budget-a process that was greatly calculated to mislead. This system was introduced six or eight years ago by one of those financiers whom we sent out to teach the Indian officials arithmetic. However introduced, it was indefensible, for it served only to mislead and delude. There was always shown a surplus of Revenue, which was a mere sham, for the Executive in India had for many years been perfectly unable to make the two ends meet, and had been obliged year after year to have recourse to loans. No Budget was worth the paper on which it was written if it did not show in one sheet all the expen-mitted that finance was not its strong diture which the Government meant to point; but he rejoiced exceedingly that sanction during the year. There should it had works of irrigation to carry out, be no division into " Ordinary " and the cost of which would be £18,000,000. "Extraordinary," and the Budget should He said, moreover, that that amount be framed in entire subordination to the would have to be greatly increased. He Ways and Means of the year, and in no referred to one scheme, prepared, as he single year in time of peace should any said, by one of the great engineers proposal for disbursement exceed the of India, which would itself require Revenue of the year. They should £14,000,000 in addition to the £18,000,000 rather fall below it. If there was a already mentioned. His Lordship then surplus of income that surplus should pointed out that the construction of be applied to the diminution of the Na- 9,000 miles of railway was in contemtional Debt of India, and if there was a plation, and altogether he spoke of an constant surplus, taxation should be taken expenditure of £100,000,000 on Puboff, those taxes being remitted which lic Works in British India. That pressed most severely upon the people. Apostle of Indian expenditure (Sir ArIf, on the contrary, there was an thur Cotton) wrote to The Times rejoicannual deficit, then the Viceroy should ing that £100,000,000 was going to be required to show by what fresh be immediately expended, and hoping taxation the Income and Expenditure it would be followed by other huncould be balanced. Budgets like the dreds of millions in rapid succession. present, which showed in the receipts And Sir Arthur Cotton was not supthe income derived from Extraordi- posed to be out of his mind. In Mannary Works, but did not show the ex- chester, in January last, however, the penditure which was the origin of that noble Lord spoke in a different strain, particular income, were Budgets which a strain which he (Mr. Smollett) could deceived the public and hid the truth. by no means reconcile with what had In his judgment, the time had come just been uttered by the noble Lord the when by some authoritative Resolution Under Secretary of State (Lord George of Parliament a stop should be put to Hamilton) upon the subject. Some of the waste and extravagance which had his Lancashire friends had been pressbeen going on for many years, particu- ing him to urge forward works of irlarly in the Department of Public Works. rigation; but the Marquess of SalisImmense sums of money had been bury, on this occasion, pooh-poohed devoted to Extraordinary Works, of irrigation. He said that years ago he which we knew nothing except that they had believed in great profits from irriwere, to a great extent, unproductive. gation, relying on the strong assertions In the years from 1872 to 1875, inclu- of certain gentlemen who had made sive, the Expenditure of India had ex- themselves its advocates, and who ceeded the Revenue by £14,100,000 or propounded false doctrines on the sub£14,200,000. That was a very seri-ject; but he had lately looked into the ous state of things in times of per- accounts, and it would have been well if fect peace. The excess of Expenditure he had done so some years previously. had been met by borrowing £10,500,000 He had found that it was all a deception.

Very few works indeed, he said, had commence his duties in India afresh, been a success, and many of them had his course of conduct would be very been great impostures. Yet they had different. In this country the mania heard again to-night, from the Under for irrigation was declining the fever Secretary for India, of profits. He (Mr. had abated somewhat; but in India it Smollett) had no faith whatever in was as rife as ever. In proof of this he calculations which showed such a result. need only mention that in 1874, notwithIt was not for him to reconcile the dis- standing all his experience, Lord Northcrepancies of the two statements of the brook sent round the country a host of noble Lord. To him they were an en- engineers to devise new works, and to igma. For his part, he had never altered send in with hot haste estimates for imhis opinion. Twenty-five years ago he mediate approval and sanction. Colonel investigated the subject of irrigation in Rundall, one of the least efficient officers India, and made himself master of it. he (Mr. Smollett) had ever known, forHe saw the delusions which people sought warded last Christmas, in obedience to to spread about enormous profits, and the Viceroy's commands, an estimate for he endeavoured to dissipate them. He works which would cost £15,000,000. denounced, not irrigation, but irrigation Lord Northbrook seemed at that time according to the principles of stupid to be labouring under a fever produced military engineers. He showed the false- by a pressure of water on the brain. ness of the data of their calculations as The time had come to put a stop to this to profit, and the still greater falseness system. If works of this character and of their data as to expenditure. In this magnitude were undertaken, the money country in and out of Parliament, he needed for their construction should be followed the same course; but he might borrowed on the security of the works as well have whistled jigs to milestones, themselves, and not upon the credit hoping to see them dance, as expect to of the Indian Revenue. Perhaps it get an Indian Secretary of State to listen would be said that all this was idle to words of common sense. Every Secre- declamation and heedless rhetoric. He tary of State who had been selected for might be asked to give specimens of the office during the last 15 years had been ap- extravagance and waste which he depointed mainly because he knew nothing nounced. That he was able to do. The of the country. They had all been men Marquess of Salisbury, speaking at of intense faith. They had believed in Manchester, referred to two large works, the stories which engineers told of profits which his Lordship regretted to say of 100 per cent, showing as much cre- hardly paid their working expenses. dulity as the men who had put their faith They were the Madras Irrigation work in the Honduras Loan or the Emma Mine. and the Orissa undertaking. The Every Viceroy also who had been sent Madras Irrigation work was not a Goout during the last 15 or 20 years had vernment work. It was still in the been indoctrinated, first of all, with the hands of private parties. But it had idea that the more money he spent in been petted, patronized, and paid for irrigation works the more would his by Secretaries of State; and the conservices be valued. So, likewise, with the duct of those functionaries in regard to Governors who had been sent to Madras this undertaking had been so reprehensiand Bombay. The right hon. Gentle-ble that an exposure of that work was not man the Member for Horsham (Sir Seymour Fitzgerald) said last year that he went out to Bombay crammed to the throat with the idea that the application of water to the soil would prove to be the panacea for all the ills that India was heir to. Perhaps he believed it would even resuscitate the Bank of Bombay. Now, however, in the opinion of the right hon. Member there had been great waste in that Presidency owing to the expenditure on irrigation. He said that some millions had been thrown away. If he had to Mr. Smollett

out of place. The work was launched to the public in December, 1858, under the guise of a joint-stock company (limited). There was a nominal capital of £2,000,000. The prospectus set forth that, as the Government of India was then engaged in putting down a great rebellion, that joint-stock company would by their own means show in the course of a very few years how the resources of British India and the revenue derived from the land would be doubled by the application of water to the soil. All that the company wanted was territory in